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SoCal Residents Return to Charred Homes

By Neal Colgrass, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 17, 2008 6:52 PM CST

(Newser) – Residents of Yorba Linda, Calif. sifted through their charred belongings today amid 113 houses razed by the so-called "Freeway Complex Fire," the Los Angeles Times reports. Meanwhile fire officials shuttled residents into a mobile home park near the Sylmar fire, which has destroyed 477 houses and 10 commercial buildings. Both blazes are 40% contained, while the Montecito fire is 90% contained.

Cooler, calmer winds helped firefighters battle the three blazes. But "we don't want to drop our guard. It's all dictated by the wind," one fire official said. Signaling a new strategy, air operations were dropped to four tankers and crews helped rummage for people's belongings. They also walked cadaver dogs through homes burned in the Sylmar blaze. About 500 people are still staying at an evacuation center nearby.

[Images (7)]

[Videos (1)]

A member of a search and rescue team walks through a fire-ravaged home in the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles, Monday, Nov. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

A Metro Bus carries residents of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar, Calif. to see the destruction from the wildfire on Monday, Nov. 17, 2008. (AP Photo)

Residents of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park are escorted by LAPD on Monday, Nov. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Daily News, POOL)

A bird statuary is about all that remains amid mobile homes razed in the northern San Fernando Valley area of Sylmar in Los Angeles, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Firefighters battle a wildfire in Chino Hills, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanche z)

Daniel Brooks of the San Bernardino County Fire Department Grand Terrace unit fights a wildfire in Chino Hills, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

A member of the Los Angeles Fire Department Urban Search and Rescue team looks for signs of possible fatalities at the Oakridge Mobile Home Park on November 17, 2008 in Sylmar, California. (Getty Images)

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