Large Blaze in California's Mojave National Preserve Destroys 67,000 Acres

KELSO, Calif. (AP) -- Mild winds and steep terrain have helped slow a 67,000-acre wildfire in a southeastern California wilderness preserve that destroyed five homes and two cabins built in the late 1800s, officials said Sunday.

Firefighters had surrounded most of the blaze, which was 65 percent contained in the Mojave National Preserve. They made good progress after a cold front moved in with winds that were not as strong as expected, said Capt. Greg Cleveland, a spokesman with the Southern California Incident Management Team.

''It's slowed now that it's topped some rocky, steep bluffs because fire likes to burn upward, not down and no big winds are pushing it down,'' Cleveland said. ''It's creeping and kind of sloping over the bluffs.''

The large fire formed after lightning sparked five separate blazes Wednesday afternoon near the Nevada state line. Those eventually merged and were burning at the edges of critical territory for the threatened desert tortoise. A federal biologist walked the burned area Saturday to determine how the fire had affected the animals, but did not find any live or dead tortoises, officials said.

More than 900 firefighters working in rocky terrain were battling the blaze, which was fueled by grass, sagebrush, juniper and pinyon pine stands made unusually dense by heavy winter rains. Six trailers or other structures also were destroyed.

It was unclear whether the fire _ in an area north of Interstate 40 and south of Interstate 15 _ had burned into sections of the preserve containing historic mines and sites of ancient Indian pictographs.

Evacuations were maintained Saturday in the Round Valley and Fourth of July Canyon areas, where about a dozen people had residences, officials said.

Elsewhere, firefighters surrounded two smaller blazes that also ignited earlier in the week.

A 3,022-acre fire that destroyed six houses and one other structure Wednesday in the Morongo Valley of San Bernardino County was fully contained Saturday. Officials began releasing some of the 1,000 firefighters there but some will remain for up to a week to watch for flare-ups, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Capt. Steve Faris said.

About 35 miles away, in the San Jacinto area of Riverside County, firefighters fully contained a 2,080-acre blaze. No homes were nearby.