Firefighters start to get deadly California blaze under control

Chicago: Firefighters have begun to contain a wildfire in central California that has killed at least two people and destroyed 200 structures, fire officials said on Sunday, as six other blazes raged in the state in an already intense wildfire season.
The intense conflagration known as Erskine, about 110 miles (180 km) north of Los Angeles, has melted steel, exploded structures and reduced homes to ash.
The Erskine fire is 10 per cent contained after ripping through 36,810 acres - or nearly 60 square miles - the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), said on Sunday.
California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Kern County due to the fire damage. In addition to the 200 destroyed structures, 75 homes have been damaged.
"Two fatalities have been confirmed. Additional fatalities are possible due to the extreme fire behavior during the initial hours of the incident," the Kern County Fire Department said in a statement on Sunday morning. Investigators were studying a third set of charred remains to determine whether they were human, officials said at a community meeting that was transmitted via the internet. More than 1,700 firefighters are working on the fire at the southern end of the Sierra Nevada range and hundreds of people from more than 10 communities have had to evacuate their homes. A total of 4,900 firefighters are in action on seven fires in the state, Cal Fire said. Erskine spread rapidly on Thursday and Friday as winds drove it south and east from the Lake Isabella reservoir. Crews worked in steep, rugged terrain, fighting flames fueled by hot, rainless weather and brush, grass and chaparral left bone dry by a five-year drought. Helicopters and air tankers were also in action. On Saturday the fire was not contained at all, but by Sunday morning, firefighters were optimistic they had brought some of the eastern edges of the fire under control. "It's looking really good," Joe Reyes, operations section chief for the team fighting the fire, told reporters at a briefing. Dozens of people, anxious to know whether their homes had survived and concerned about potential looting, met with fire and emergency officials at the community meeting on Saturday. Fire officials said they hoped to let people back to fire-hit areas by noon on Sunday, but warned people not to return until emergency workers screened areas for toxic materials. (Reporting by Fiona Ortiz in Chicago; Editing by Dan Grebler)