Firefighters battling a blaze in a California canyon have made some progress toward containment but were up against more high winds and low humidity.
The Bond Fire, which had forced some 25,000 people in Orange County to evacuate, broke out on Wednesday night on the street for which it is named and quickly engulfed Silverado Canyon, egged on by strong Santa Ana winds.
Captain Paul Holaday of Orange County Fire Authority said firefighters worked tirelessly to try to keep the blaze contained.
"Firefighters worked through the night extinguishing hot spots, mopping up around structures and stopping the forward spread of this fire," he said in a video posted to Twitter on Friday.
Air and ground units were focused on protecting the canyon communities of Silverado, Santiago, Williams and Modjesca on Friday, Holaday said.
In a Friday morning bulletin, the National Weather Service said a red flag warning for high gusty winds was in effect until Saturday night for the inland portion of Orange County.
The strongest winds are expected on Friday morning.
Two firefighters involved in the effort were injured and transported to a local hospital for further treatment, the Orange County Fire Authority said on Twitter on Thursday.
The blaze was 10 per cent contained as of Friday morning.
Fire officials have not yet said what they believe to be the cause of the fire.
However Bond Rd resident Giovanna Gibson, 60, said neighbours believed the blaze ignited when the owners of a home without power tried to start their generator and it exploded.
Since the start of the year, wildfires have scorched more than 17,000 sq km of California land, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The yearly land area burned in the western United States has grown eight times larger in less than four decades, the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station said in research published last month.
Australian Associated Press
