Crews Dig Firelines for California Blaze

LOCKWOOD VALLEY, Calif. - Crews dug firelines and reinforced others on the northwestern edge of a wildfire that crept toward hundreds of forest homes in Southern California on Thursday.

The fire moved slowly, feeding on dense stands of pine and thickets of chaparral, sumac and manzanita in the Los Padres National Forest, where the blaze has burned 159,281 acres, or nearly 249 square miles, northwest of Los Angeles since Labor Day.

"We're pretty optimistic. We're getting some lines around the fire. It's starting to look pretty good," said Ventura County fire Battalion Chief Bryan Vanden Bossche. "This is one of the days we've had the least amount of (fire) activity."

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