Early season wildfires wreak havoc in the West

Updated 7:26 p.m. ET

LANCASTER, Calif. A wildfire that destroyed six homes north of Los Angeles continues to expand into unoccupied desert areas, but hundreds of houses in foothill communities remain evacuated.

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy says crews are attacking the 41-square-mile blaze burning in the Antelope Valley on four fronts Sunday.

Judy says the fastest-moving front chewed through dry scrub until it ran out of fuel in the barren Mojave Desert west of Lancaster.

Firefighters continued to protect more than 1,000 homes at the edge of the rural communities of Lake Hughes and Lake Elizabeth. Judy says at least six homes burned overnight.

Crews in steep terrain hoping for cooler weather did not get much of a break, as temperatures hovered in the 90s.

The fire is 20 percent contained.

Another uncontained blaze near Santa Fe, N.M., had spread to nearly 10 square miles by Saturday night, making it apparently the largest of several wildfires burning in the West as it placed the city under a blanket of haze. The thick smoke also covered the Gallinas Canyon and Las Vegas, N.M.

The fire in New Mexico's Santa Fe National Forest is burning just 25 miles from the city, prompting the Red Cross to set up an emergency shelter at a nearby high school.

Officials asked residents in about 140 homes, mainly summer residences, to evacuate as a crew of more than 400 battled the flames near the communities of Pecos and Tres Lagunas.

Crews also cleared out campgrounds and closed trailheads in the area as they worked to prevent the fire from moving toward the capital city's watershed and more populated areas.

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Another New Mexico blaze, the Thompson Ridge fire near Jemez Springs, grew to nearly two square miles by Saturday night, state forestry officials said. Between 40 and 50 homes in the area were evacuated as more than 200 crew members and a helicopter were fighting the blaze burning through pine forests and brush.

Forecasters said some rain was possible in both fire areas on Sunday as well as gusty winds.

North of Los Angeles, the wind shifted in several directions, fanning the fire in the Angeles National Forest to nearly 9 square miles, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy.

Officials estimate nearly 20,000 acres have burned in Southern California wildfire now, Reuters reports. The Los Angeles Fire Department, the U.S. Forestry Service and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said the fire was 20 percent contained, reports CBS affiliate KCBS in Los Angeles.

Matt Corelli, also of the Forest Service, told The Associated Press early Sunday that five structures had been destroyed. He said they could be homes but crews were waiting for daylight to make a positive determination.

"That's the only number we have confirmed right now," he said.

Daytime temperatures that topped at 105 degrees and the erratic winds worked against the nearly 1,000 firefighters on the line. Judy said the wind pushed the fire up and down steep slopes, creating embers that sparked spot fires in different directions.

In Colorado, Mike Blakeman, a spokesman for the Rio Grande National Forest, said a fire 15 miles southwest of the small town of Creede was reported. No structures have been damaged, but three homes and several outbuildings were threatened Saturday.