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Jul 8, 2008 3:44 am US/Pacific
Heat Wave May Thwart Firefighters' Efforts
LOS ANGELES (AP) ―
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Goleta wildfire. (File)
CBS
A day of gains on the California firelines could be giving way to days of trouble.
A National Weather Service meteorologist says a high pressure system is setting up over the entire West. Forecasters are expecting warmer temperatures and offshore wind which keeps the moist marine air from coming inland.
The state's three major forest blazes -- the Gap fire in Santa Barbara County, the Basin Complex near Big Sur and the Piute fire in the southern Sierra Nevada -- are all less than half contained.
Those fires are among more than 300 still uncontained out of some 1,780 that have scorched more than 960 square miles of California in two weeks.
A Southern California Edison spokeswoman says about 36,000 customers in Santa Barbara County lost power around 8 last night but nearly all had their power restored within an hour. It's at least the sixth straight day that transmission lines have been affected by flames and smoke.
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