Starting about 2 p.m. on Wednesday, a wind-whipped wildfire named the Silver Fire started near a back-country road about 90 miles (145 km) outside Los Angeles in Riverside County, and within hours had blackened more than 5,000 acres. Nearly 1,500 firefighters are now battling the blaze, gaining some ground and declaring the fire 25 percent contained -- but only after several people were burned and dozens of homes were lost. Although the fire continues to advance, hopes for containment are high as favorable weather conditions have been forecast for the weekend.
California's Silver Fire
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A home burns as it is consumed by the Silver Fire near Banning, California, on August 7, 2013. The wildfire raged out of control in the high desert east of Los Angeles on Wednesday, injuring two firefighters and one civilian and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents of three small communities. #
Reuters/Gene Blevins -
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A helicopter drops water over a wildfire in Cabazon, California, on August 8, 2013. About 1,500 people have fled and three were injured as a wildfire in the Southern California mountains quickly spread. #
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A firefighter battles a wildfire in Cabazon, California, on August 8, 2013. A growing wildfire chewed through a rugged Southern California mountain range on Thursday, damaging buildings, threatening as many as 600 homes and forcing some 1,500 people to flee. #
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong -
Fire spreads up the north side of the San Jacinto Mountains near wind turbines at the Silver Fire, near Banning, California, on August 8, 2013. Firefighters gained ground against a wind-whipped California wildfire that has destroyed 15 buildings, injured at least five people and forced the evacuation of 500 homes in several small communities east of Los Angeles. #
Reuters/David McNew -
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Smoke from the Silver Fire rises above the San Jacinto Mountains behind one of the Cabazon Dinosaurs, a roadside attraction also known as Claude Bell's Dinosaurs, in Cabazon, on August 8, 2013. #
Reuters/David McNew -
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Shawn Kaye, a television news photographer, put down his camera and picked up a garden hose to help save a house from the garage that was fully consumed in the Silver Fire near Banning, on August 7, 2013. #
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