The fire, in the San Bernardino National Forest about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, was 35 percent contained early Monday after charring about 1,300 acres, the U.S. Forest Service reported.
About 1,000 residents were evacuated Friday from 400 homes near the fire. They began returning late Sunday after authorities lifted an evacuation order. Officials announced Monday that an evacuation center at a school in nearby Running Springs had been closed.
Firefighters were helped by rising humidity Sunday as they rushed to dig a perimeter around the blaze before hot, dry weather returned.
The fire started Friday about four miles from Highland in an area with thousands of dead trees ravaged by Western pine bark beetles, said Karen Terrill, fire information officer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The cause wasn't immediately known.
Across the West, 45 large fires had blackened 589,204 acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The fire season has been far calmer this year than previous years. As of Sunday, 2.9 million acres had burned, well below the 10-year average of 3.7 million for the same period. Last year, 6.4 million acres had burned by Sept. 7.
The wildfire posing the most immediate threat to homes Monday was north of the border in Canada.
About 4,200 people had been forced from homes in Kelowna, British Columbia, and 15,000 others were on evacuation alert as weary firefighters battled a wind-whipped blaze. The three-week-old fire had already destroyed 240 homes in the city.
In Washington state, officials began evacuating homes in the Methow Valley after a lightning-sparked wildfire there doubled in size Sunday to 15,000 acres.
``It's better to err on the side of caution and give people ample time to do an orderly evacuation,'' said Dale Warriner, a spokesman for the state's incident management team on the fire. ``It's kind of creeping up over the ridge.''
In Montana, firefighters battling a blaze in Glacier National Park were anticipating a cold front late Monday that could bring moisture and cooler temperatures, said fire information officer Frank Mossbacher. Crews were trying to block an 57,056-acre wildfire from hooking around Lake McDonald or reaching Going-to-the-Sun road.
