A helicopter makes a water drop at the "Old Fire", which burned in Calabasas, California, US, on June 4, 2016. (Reuters)
Firefighters made gains on Sunday against a fast-moving brush fire in the hills outside Los Angeles that has burned more than 500 acres and threatened homes in the affluent city of Calabasas, authorities said.
After some 5,000 people were forced to evacuate the area on Saturday, fire officials lifted mandatory evacuations on Sunday in Calabasas, a city of rugged hills and ranches 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Los Angeles that several celebrities call home.
The fire had burned 516 acres by sunrise and was 30 per cent contained, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said. Weather had cooled considerably overnight from Saturday's high temperatures, but could heat up again.
Evacuation orders remained in place higher up in the hills in Topanga Canyon, a rustic stretch famous for its resident artists and musicians that rolls down to the Pacific Ocean.
About 400 firefighters were battling the blaze, and three of them sustained injuries, John Tripp, deputy chief of the L.A. County Fire Department, said at a morning news conference.
Helicopters and air tankers were also brought in to make water drops.
Two single-family homes sustained minor damage and a commercial building was destroyed in the fire, which started when a vehicle hit a utility pole and brought down a power line, authorities said.
The fire was one of several burning in Southern California, where days of high temperatures dried out brush and produced what Tripp called "extremely stressed vegetation."
© Thomson Reuters 2016