Progress reported in N California fire

Officials reported major progress Friday in battling one major wildfire, the Ponderosa in Northern California. The fire, which began with a lightning strike Saturday, was 68 percent contained, the Los Angeles Times reported. Maryann Aldrich, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said full containment was expected Monday. "They're making progress every hour and we're fairly confident that we've got the forward movement stopped," Aldrich said. The fire has burned through 28,000 acres in Tehama and Shasta counties, destroying 64 houses and threatening several small communities. The same series of storms caused a dozen wildfires elsewhere. In Washington state, officials said they hoped to declare the Taylor Bridge fire on the eastern slope of the Cascades contained Friday. They pushed the date back to next Wednesday because of difficult conditions in Hidden Valley, a narrow canyon where the fire continues to burn, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported. "It's just nasty in this canyon we're trying to build lines in," said Mick Mueller, a spokesman for the interagency firefighting team. The nearby Diamond Butte fire on the Yakama Indian Reservation was declared 30 percent contained. Because the Taylor Bridge fire is contained outside the canyon, crews are being removed from the area and management transferred as of Saturday to a state agency, InciWeb, the Incident Information System site, reported. In Oregon, the 26,000-acre Cache Creek fire in the Hells Canyon Recreation Area has spread into eastern Washington state, The (Portland) Oregonian reported.