In Santa Cruz County, the winds shifted, bringing in moist air and aiding firefighters on the blaze, which threatened more than 1,000 residences and 50 businesses in the rural community of Bonny Doon.
"That decrease in the winds has allowed us to aggressively go in" to fight the Bonny Doon blaze, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
More than 700 firefighters, the bulk of them from the state, were surrounding the blaze, which started Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday morning had grown to 700 acres, with just 5% contained.
The fire, in a remote corner of the county about a dozen miles from the coast, is the second to hit Santa Cruz County. Two weeks ago, a mountain blaze to the east destroyed 38 structures and blackened 4,000 acres.
Butte County, meanwhile, continued to reel from its second big blaze in just three days. A fire outside Oroville destroyed more than 20 homes before it was controlled this week. The latest blaze erupted in a swath of wild lands east of Chico and spread quickly with the winds Wednesday.
More than 600 firefighters were on the scene, but the blaze was just 10% contained.
Schwarzenegger's emergency declarations for the two counties included an order to activate the state's DC-10 and DC-7 retardant-dropping aircraft as well as to shift additional firefighters to the region. The state Office of Emergency Services was monitoring the incidents along with the forestry department.
Schwarzenegger said in a statement that the state "is committed to doing whatever it takes" to battle the blazes.
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eric.bailey@latimes.com
