By Raquel Maria Dillon
The Associated Press
TEHACHAPI, Calif.
Hundreds of firefighters gained ground Wednesday against the most destructive of two big wildfires that have burned dozens of homes and forced 2,300 people to evacuate mountain communities on the edge of the Mojave Desert and in the southern Sierra Nevada.
A 1,400-acre blaze that burned 30 to 40 homes in the Old West Ranch community 10 miles south of Tehachapi was 25 percent contained, the Kern County Fire Department said. About 150 homes remained threatened.
The area is usually so gusty that wind farms line ridges, but the weather was cooperating with the 800 firefighters on the lines, producing only light breezes in the afternoon.
At a Red Cross evacuation center in Tehachapi, Sarah DeSmet, 22, of Los Angeles cuddled a dusty black kitten she had pulled out of the rubble at the home of her uncle, George Plesko, who looked dazed as volunteers tried to get him to eat lunch. "My uncle called my mom to say his final goodbyes" because he didn't think he would get out alive, DeSmet said.
About 40 miles to the north, a fire that began Monday in Sequoia National Forest grew to 15,600 acres.
Officials were investigating what caused the fires.
