Western wildfires burning amid scorching weather are a severe test for fire crews.

Containment of blazes a hodgepodge of results

LOS ANGELES — Firefighters toiled in stifling heat Saturday on the lines of destructive wildfires across the West, making progress against some blazes while struggling to tame others.

In heat-stricken Southern California, powerful winds that sent an overnight inferno hopscotching through the Santa Barbara County community of Goleta vanished in the morning, allowing firefighters to extinguish smoldering ruins of an estimated 20 structures, including homes.

The fire’s spread was stopped at about 100 acres or less, and teams were working on an accurate tally of damage.

Elsewhere in Southern California, firefighters increased containment of a central San Diego County fire that rapidly spread over 400 acres, destroyed 18 structures and damaged eight, and a wildfire in the San Bernardino National Forest was holding at 1.5 square miles and forced evacuation of about 700 homes in the mountain community of Forest Falls.

Fires also burned on the Marine Corps’ sprawling Camp Pendleton base in northern San Diego County.

The Southern California fires erupted Friday as strong high pressure over the West spawned an epic heat wave.

The unstable air mass unleashed downpours that triggered flashflood warnings for the mountains northeast of Los Angeles.

Just south of the California-Oregon border, the 34-square-mile Klamathon Fire in rural Siskiyou County was just 5 percent contained. The body of a resident was found Friday in the ruins of a home, among 15 destroyed structures tallied so far.

Elsewhere in California, the 138-square-mile County Fire northwest of Sacramento was nearly 50 percent contained. Ten structures were counted destroyed but damage assessments were continuing.

In Utah, meanwhile, authorities allowed the return of some residents who fled a wildfire near a popular fishing lake 80 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. The blaze has burned about 75 square miles and destroyed 90 structures.

Richard Vogel The Associated Press A helicopter drops water Saturday on a brush fire that erupted on a mountainside above Burbank, Calif. Police ordered evacuations in the Wildwood Canyon area and sent officers door to door.