California fires slow rampage

California's wildfires slowed their rampage through brush-choked mountains as storms moved in and firefighters solidified gains made in containing the huge and destructive blazes.

Ray Snodgrass, chief deputy director of the state's forests department, reported that each of the six fires still being tracked was at least 25 per cent contained - progress made by ground crews digging trenches by hand and with bulldozers around the fires' perimeters.

Significant rain and snowfall were forecast for the hard-hit mountain areas in San Bernardino and San Diego counties, where firestorms incinerated entire suburban neighborhoods.

Late Friday, a flash flood ripped through the northern part of the burn region in Ventura County and National Weather Service forecasters warned of mudslides.

Teams of hydrologists and soil and wildlife experts have been dispatched to burned zones where the ground has barely cooled to try to prevent denuded hillsides from collapsing on the rubble and remaining homes, officials said.

The more than 100,000 residents who fled their homes over the past week trickled back into areas charred by the ten major fires to see if their homes were among the more than 2,800 destroyed in the record-setting 303,000-hectare fires.

The blazes burned drought-stricken brush and diseased pine forests from north of Los Angeles to the Mexican border, killing at least 20 people, including a firefighter and about a dozen residents trapped by the fast-moving flames.

Steve Westley, state controller and California's chief auditor, said the total cost of the fires could be $12 billion.

Speaking at the Milken Institute in Los Angeles, Westley said the hit to the state's busted budget could require "a short-term tax increase" - something Republican Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger campaigned against during the October recall election.

Outgoing Democratic Governor Gray Davis, who visited fire victims on Friday with Schwarzenegger, said more than 5,000 residents had applied for government aid at two centres.

The cause of many of the fires was still under investigation, but most were set by people, fire officials said.

The governor was scheduled to tour the five-county disaster area with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. He may do the same next week with President George W. Bush.