The blaze in Swinley Forest raged for three weeks in May 2011, damaging more than 100, 000 trees, most of them pines.

BBC: Burnt forest rises from the ashes

Erratic wind spread the blaze in the Angeles National Forest to nearly 41 square miles early Sunday, triggering the evacuation of nearly 1, 000 homes in Lake Hughes and Lake Elizabeth, officials said.

NPR: Southern Calif Wildfire Explodes In Size Overnight

In Arizona, firefighters were building containment lines around a 3, 700-acre blaze on the Tonto National Forest to try to protect electric transmission lines that provide power to the state's major metropolitan areas.

MSN: Nuns, Boy Scouts among new wildfire evacuees

As firefighters try to get the upper hand on the blaze near Fort Collins, which has burned large swaths of private and U.S. Forest Service land since it began June 9, local authorities have dispatched roving patrols to combat looting.

MSN: Nuns, Boy Scouts among new wildfire evacuees