Firefighters gaining control over devastating wildfire near Los Angeles

By Rich McKay and Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) - Firefighters started gaining control on Friday over a stubborn wildfire near Los Angeles that destroyed at least 132 buildings and damaged 88 others, as many of the more than 10,000 people forced to evacuate were able to return home.

Some 2,400 firefighters were aided by more favorable winds coming from the Pacific Ocean after previously hot and dry winds coming from the desert fanned the so-called Mountain Fire, which broke out on Wednesday about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Los Angeles.

The fire had consumed 20,630 acres (8,350 hectares) by Friday, virtually unchanged from 24 hours earlier, and was 14% contained, up from 7%, Cal Fire officials told a press conference.

"We had no external or lateral movement today. That is fantastic," Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner told a news briefing.

Residents of 3,500 homes were able to return home but another 2,000 homes remained under evacuation orders, Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said.

Fueled by dry brush and steep, rugged terrain, the fire remained a threat to critical infrastructure and islands would continue to burn within its footprint.

Among those who lost a home was Dennis Gottlieb of Ventura County. He counted himself lucky to be alive as he waited early on Friday morning at a shelter at Padre Serra Parish Catholic Church in Camarillo, California. He said he lost all his possessions except his truck.

"It was windy, real windy, but that's all, so I just started my regular day until I saw the smoke and then the fire," he said. Gottlieb said he grabbed some garden hoses and thought he could keep the blaze away from the house.

"Suddenly the smoke got real heavy and embers were falling all around," he said. "It was hot, real hot, like 150 degrees (65 C). So I grabbed the keys to my truck," he said. He and his wife, Linda Fellerman, barely made it out. One road was blocked by a fallen tree until a neighbor with a chainsaw cut it away.

He went back on Thursday to see if he could salvage any keepsakes but said, "Everything is gone. All gone. Burned up."

A red flag warning for the area was lifted as winds were expected to calm to less than 15 miles per hour (24 kph) and humidity was due to climb, the National Weather Service said.

The dry Santa Ana winds that fanned the flames at first with gusts of 80 mph to 100 mph earlier this week are expected to stay calm over the weekend, topping out at 20-to-25 mph, said Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist with the NWS office in Oxnard, California.

"The rain chances are low to none," he said. "But while the winds are calmer now, they're going to pick up again by Tuesday."

Officials braced people for a difficult recovery.

"The only thing left standing of our house is the two chimneys," Darren Kettle told the Los Angeles Times. "My heart dropped to my stomach. It's just shocking, traumatic."

Climate scientists say warming temperatures have created wet winters that allowed California's coastal chaparral - areas dominated by small trees, shrubs and bushes - to thrive. Record-high temperatures this summer dried out hillsides, priming them for wildfire.

The United States is experiencing a strong wildfire year with 8.1 million acres (3.3 million hectares) burned to date, compared with an annual, full-year average of around 7 million acres over the last decade, according to National Interagency Fire Center data.

So far this year, California wildfires have burned more than three times as much land as last year at this time, according to Cal Fire data.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta, Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California, and Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Frank McGurty, Sandra Maler and Raju Gopalakrishnan)