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LOS OLIVOS, Calif. - A huge wildfire grew significantly in a national forest Friday night, raining ash on communities miles away and forcing hundreds of people to evacuate their rural homes and campgrounds. The month-old fire in northern Santa Barbara County has burned an estimated 38,000 acres — or 60 square miles — and was 70 percent contained. However, fire officials said the blaze had grown during the day. "We got additional wind on it today and the fire started burning more actively midmorning," said Kathy Good, Los Padres National Forest spokeswoman. "Now it's headed south-southeast." Told to evacuate were...

LOS OLIVOS, Calif. - Residents of several hundred homes, including Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, were asked to evacuate as a wildfire in the mountains of Santa Barbara's wine country threatened to shift in the wind, a fire official said Tuesday. The 43-square-mile blaze in the Los Padres National Forest had come within about two miles of some homes when more than 1,000 residents living in and around Los Olivos were advised to leave Monday night, said Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Eli Iskow. The notice covered a swath of land where Jackson's ranch sits. The pop star has not been...

A wildfire burned into a wilderness area of Los Padres National Forest on Saturday, threatening some campgrounds and showing no sign of slowing down as it moved through tinder-dry chaparral in Santa Barbara County. The fire was heading east and threatened some campgrounds and the historic Manzana schoolhouse, a century-old wooden building, fire spokesman Andy Yamamoto said. The fire was burning in a steep, remote area in brush and oak woodlands that had not seen flames for some 40 years, Yamamoto said. More than 1,200 firefighters were on the line, battling flames by hand or with bulldozers and aided by...

In the wilderness north of Fillmore, the California condor has fought its way back from the brink of extinction. As the federally endangered scavenger's population dwindled over the past century, the rugged mountains became the metaphorical and geographical heart of the movement to save it. But the area is not just good for condor habitat; it's rich in oil, too. The region has some of the oldest oil fields in the state. A recent decision to once again open Los Padres National Forest to gas and oil exploration could threaten efforts to replenish the condor population, some say. While the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Padres National Forest will allow companies to drill for an estimated 17 million barrels of crude oil or natural gas within its borders but roadless wilderness areas and critical habitat of the California condor will be preserved, forest officials announced Thursday. Forest Supervisor Gloria Brown will allow oil and gas leasing on only 52,000 out of 767,000 acres of land that were included in a decade-long study of Los Padres, a nearly 2 million-acre forest that spans 220 miles from Big Sur in Monterey County south to near western Los Angeles County. On all but...