The Associated Press
By Don Thompson

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Lightning sparked as many as 400 fires that burned around Northern California on Sunday, as officials farther south were close to containing a blaze that had destroyed more than a dozen homes and forced thousands to evacuate.

The largest was a 3-square-mile blaze burning in grassy woodland about 40 miles southeast of Sacramento, threatening scattered ranch houses. A mandatory evacuation was ordered for some residents, said Nancy Carniglia of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The blaze began in Napa County Saturday afternoon and had quickly spread to a mostly rural area of Solano County. It was 10 percent contained Sunday morning, Carniglia said.

Storms were responsible for more than 60 fires in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, about 160 miles north of Sacramento. Those fires ranged in size from less than an acre to more than 750 acres.

None immediately threatened homes, said Forest Service spokesman Michael Odle. Teams moved in Saturday on the two largest fires.

Other fires were scattered throughout Northern California, with another 90 fires ranging from one acre to 125 acres in size burning in the Mendocino County area alone, said officials of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office said Saturday that lightning had sparked nearly 400 fires from Monterey County to the California-Oregon border. The governor ordered the California National Guard to assist in firefighting efforts.

South of San Francisco, a fire that burned homes and closed a stretch of highway was 90 percent contained.

Officials had expected full containment on Saturday, but hot weather and new fires kept fire crews in the area busy. Cal Fire now expects the fire to be fully contained on Sunday. So far, it had charred 630 acres, or less than a square mile.

Evacuation orders were lifted Saturday, a day after roughly 2,000 people fled their homes.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation, Van Gerwen said.

It was the third major blaze to hit Santa Cruz County in the past month. A 520-acre blaze charred destroyed 11 buildings in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and a fire near Corralitos covered more than 4,200 acres and destroyed about 100 buildings.

To the south along the coast, firefighters worked against a nearly 80-square-mile fire in a remote part of the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County. It was about 55 percent contained.

In New Mexico, hundreds of firefighters battled blazes in the northern and southern parts of the state that have charred more than 100 square miles, including more than 4,000 acres on a ranch owned by media mogul Ted Turner.

In a remote southeastern part of the state, lightning-sparked fires have scorched more than 95 square miles of mainly desert landscape.

The largest fire, 20 miles southwest of Hope, has charred about 64 square miles and was 35 percent contained. Two other blazes burning about 30 miles west of Roswell merged Saturday, and have blackened nearly 32 square miles.

The fires were burning grass, shrubs and cacti along with some pinon and juniper trees. No structures were threatened.

In northern New Mexico, another fire that began as two blazes burned nearly 7 square miles on Turner's Vermejo Park Ranch.