Central California wildfire destroys 150 homes


LAKE ISABELLA, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters now say a California wildfire has burned 150 homes and the toll may rise.

Crews were busy today counting the houses and mobile homes incinerated by a fire raging through rural communities around Lake Isabella in the southern Sierra Nevada.

Whole blocks have burned to the ground as winds drive the flames through small foothill communities. The fire, which began Thursday, has burned some 56 square miles of tinder-dry brush and trees.

More than 1,100 firefighters are on the line.

Evacuees who have spent days at a shelter were warned today that it's unclear when they can return.

Some say they've learned from friends that their homes are gone.

Meanwhile, a major highway that had been shut down for several days by a wildfire in eastern Arizona has reopened.

Navajo County spokesman Adam Wolfe said a stretch of US Highway 60 that is west of the blaze was open to traffic.