Cooler Weather and Light Winds Help Contain Angeles Forest Fire : Santa Clarita: Firefighters win battle a day earlier than expected. Evacuated residents are allowed to return to their homes.

Taking advantage of cooler temperatures and light winds, firefighters battling a 625-acre brush fire in the Angeles National Forest contained the blaze Sunday afternoon--a day sooner than fire officials had expected.

U.S. Forest Service officials reported containment of the fire, which began Saturday afternoon, at 6 p.m. Spokesman Earl Clayton said he expected the blaze to be fully controlled by 6 a.m. this morning.

Residents who had been evacuated were allowed to return home earlier in the day.

Forest Service officials had not expected the blaze to be contained until 6 p.m. today because of the steep terrain in the Bouquet Canyon area northeast of Santa Clarita. But cooler temperatures and the absence of the winds that stoked the fire Saturday enabled firefighters to gain the upper hand by mid-afternoon.

“It really went well up there today,” Clayton said.

A stretch of Bouquet Canyon Road from Vasquez Canyon Road to Spunky Canyon Road remained closed to the general public Sunday, but about 200 people who had been evacuated shortly after the fire started Saturday returned to their homes. The Forest Service said homes were no longer in the line of the fire.

“There are structures in the area, but nothing is in immediate danger,” Clayton said. “Unless something unforeseen happens in terms of the wind blowing fire out of the fire line, we don’t anticipate” any structures burning.

No houses have been destroyed by the fire, which authorities believe was deliberately set Saturday afternoon in two separate locations about a quarter of a mile apart on Bouquet Canyon Road.

About 750 people from the U.S. Forest Service, California Department of Forestry, California Conservation Corps and the Los Angeles County Fire Department fought the fast-moving blaze Sunday. Six firefighters sustained minor injuries ranging from heat exhaustion to a twisted ankle.

Thirty homes were left without power when three Southern California Edison Co. power poles in Texas Canyon were destroyed in the fire. Repair crews worked through Saturday night, and with the aid of a helicopter reset the poles, Edison officials said.

Bouquet Canyon Road from Vasquez Canyon Road to Elizabeth Lake Road will be closed today to allow fire personnel and equipment to move in and out freely.

“It’s a major commuter route. It’ll have a big impact on people coming from the desert side over to work,” said Shawn Jerzowski of the Forest Service.

The cost of fighting the fire had reached $150,000 by Sunday morning and was expected to climb.

“It’ll be a quarter of a million dollars or more before it’s over,” Clayton said.