By Noah Berger
SOUTH LAKE, Calif. (Reuters) - 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 burned in the state in an already intense wildfire season.
The fire known as Erskine, about 110 miles (180 km) north of Los Angeles, smoldered over a wide area on Sunday after melting steel and reducing homes to ash when it was an intense conflagration on Thursday and Friday.
The Erskine fire is 10 percent 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.
More than 1,700 firefighters were working on the fire at the southern end of the Sierra Nevada range. Hundreds of people from more than 10 communities were evacuated as Erskine spread rapidly on Thursday and Friday as winds drove it south and east from the Lake Isabella reservoir.
"I got out just as the flames were at my back fence," said Terralyn Lehman, who is staying at a campground with her mother and her dog after their home in South Lake was destroyed.
She and her mother were awoken by the sound of a propane tank exploding. Lehman said her mother told her "'grab your dog and go.' So I did."
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.
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.
Fire officials told people at a community meeting that was transmitted over the internet on Saturday that they hoped to let people back to fire-hit areas on Sunday.