(From the AP) Mother Nature is helping firefighters in their battle against the most destructive of two big California wildfires that have burned homes and forced hundreds to evacuate communities on the edge of the Mojave Desert and southern Sierra Nevada.

A 1,400-acre blaze in the Old West Ranch community about 10 miles south of Tehachapi is 25 percent contained. Fire officials hope to have it fully contained by Friday.

Officials say between 25 and 40 structures, most of them homes, were lost to the fire. Another 150 homes remain threatened.

About 40 miles to the north, a fire that began Monday in Sequoia National Forest has grown to nearly 16,000 acres, or about 24 square miles. It is 12 percent surrounded after burning eight homes and six outbuildings in the area of Kernville.