Cooler Air, Light Winds Help Contain Fire in Angeles Forest

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 expected.

U.S. 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,” said Forest Service spokesman Earl Clayton.

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.

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.