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   LANCASTER, Calif. (AP) — Nearly 3,000 people from some 700 homes are under evacuation orders as a wildfire north of Los Angeles kept growing, feeding on old, dry brush, some of which hadn't burned in decades.

    The blaze had burned about 35 square miles in the mountains and canyons of the Angeles National Forest, destroying at least six homes and damaging 15 more.

   The fire, which was 20 percent contained, was fueled in part by chaparral that was "extremely old and dry" and hadn't burned since 1929, U.S. Forest Service Incident Commander Norm Walker said Sunday at a news conference.

   It was spreading fastest into unoccupied land, but populated areas about 50 miles north of downtown LA remained in danger, with more than 2,800 people and 700 homes under evacuation orders that were expected to last until late Monday or Tuesday in the communities of Lake Hughes and Lake Elizabeth, sheriff's Lt. David Coleman said.

   It appeared to be the fiercest of several burning in the West, including two in New Mexico, where thick smoke covered several communities and set a blanket of haze over Santa Fe. Crews fighting the two uncontained wildfires focused Sunday on building protection lines around them, hoping predicted storms could bring moisture to help reduce the intensity of the fires.

   In Southern California, about 2,100 firefighters were taking on the wildfire, aided by water-dropping aircraft, including three helicopters expected to stay aloft through the night.

   "We're putting everything that we have into this," Walker said.

   The cause of the fire was under investigation. Three firefighters had minor injuries, but no one else was hurt.

   Winds of about 25 mph and gusting as high as 40 mph had created "havoc" for firefighters for much of Sunday, LA County Deputy Chief David Richardson said.

   Propelled by the strong winds, the fire jumped an aqueduct into the west of Lancaster, officials said.

   Nightfall brought some weather relief, and firefighters hope they could take advantage of it.

   "It is cooling off," Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy said. "The winds have died down, at least compared to earlier."

   In a report early Monday, fire officials said that the blaze was holding and no new evacuations or road closures were immediately foreseen.

   At least six homes had burned to the ground, and 15 more were scorched by flames, LA County fire Chief Daryl L. Osby said.

   George Ladd, 61, said among them was a cabin at Lake Hughes his family had owned since 1954, but sold just last week. He said he expected it may go up in flames sooner.

   "We had always worried about that thing going off like a bomb," Ladd said.

   He walked through the ashes of his former cabin and the other destroyed homes Sunday.

   "All of them are nothing," he said by phone from his home in nearby Palmdale later Sunday night. "A few scraps, a few pieces of wood with nails sticking out, but mostly just broken up concrete."

   Mark Wadsworth, 64, said he was confident his house in Lake Elizabeth survived. He spent Sunday parked in his truck atop a ridge, watching plumes of smoke rise from the canyons below.

   "I've got nowhere to go, so I'm just waiting for them to open the roads again and let me back in," Wadsworth said.

   In New Mexico, a fire burning in Santa Fe National Forest 25 miles from Santa Fe had grown to nearly 12 square miles by Sunday evening, causing thick smoke to cover parts of Gallinas Canyon and Las Vegas, N.M.

   The fire near the communities of Pecos and Tres Lagunas had prompted the evacuations of about 140 homes, most of them summer residences.

   Crews also cleared out campgrounds and closed trailheads in the area as they worked to prevent the fire from moving toward the capital city's watershed and more populated areas.

   Another New Mexico blaze, the Thompson Ridge fire near Jemez Springs, grew to nearly 3 square miles.

   Forty to 50 homes that were evacuated late last week remained so on Sunday.

   Forestry service officials say neither blaze and destroyed any homes, but one house suffered minor damage.

   For California evacuees, the Red Cross opened centers in Lancaster and Palmdale, where about 150 residents awaited word on when they could return home.

   A huge plume of smoke could be seen from much of northern Los Angeles County, and air-quality officials warned against strenuous outdoor activity.

   The blaze broke out Thursday just north of Powerhouse No. 1, a hydroelectric plant near the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

   The wilderness area is a draw for boaters, campers and hikers. Crews and residents were being warned to keep an eye out for rattlesnakes and bears that could be displaced by flames.

   Evacuations remained in effect for several campgrounds and two youth probation camps. Several roads and trails were closed.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - The U.S. Air Force has launched an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile from a California base, a month after the test flight was postponed because of tensions with North Korea.

Vandenberg Air Force Base says the Minuteman 3 lifted off at 6:27 a.m. PDT Wednesday. It later splashed down thousands of miles away in the Pacific.

It's the first Minuteman test-launch of the year. Several Minutemans are launched each year at from Vandenberg to determine the weapon system's accuracy and reliability.

Officials say the original mid-April flight plan was delayed to avoid it being misconstrued by North Korea during a time of heightened tensions. It was rescheduled for Tuesday morning but was pushed back a day due to a problem with range safety instruments.

A 12-year-old chess prodigy from California will make his next competitive move in St. Louis next month.

Tournament organizers say Samuel Sevian, of Santa Clara, is the youngest person ever to compete in the U.S. Championship to be held at  the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.

For a fifth year the Club is playing host to the U.S. Championship and the U.S. Women's Championship from May 3rd to 13th.

Tournament organizers say Samuel Sevian was just nine-years-old when he was named a "National Master." At the time, it made him the youngest person to achieve that title in U.S. chess history.

 

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - Police evacuated a Los Angeles home improvement store Sunday after a caller said they had seen someone resembling a fugitive ex-police officer suspected of three killings.

Los Angeles police spokesman Gus Villanueva says the caller reported a sighting of 33 year old Christopher Dorner. Police were sent to the Northridge area but Villanueva later said a search of the Lowe's Home Improvement store yielded no evidence that Dorner was there or had been there.

News helicopters earlier showed police helping customers and employees leave the store. A command post was established nearby.

The search since Thursday evening had focused on mountains 80 miles east of Los Angeles where Dorner's burned truck was found. But authorities have found no recent signs of Dorner.

LA officials announced a $1 million reward earlier Sunday for information leading to Dorner's arrest.

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. (AP) -- More than 100 officers fanned out again at daybreak Saturday in the snow-covered San Bernardino Mountains, resuming the search for the former Los Angeles police officer suspected of going on a deadly rampage to get back at those he blamed for ending his career. Authorities hope clearer skies will allow aircraft to help them in the manhunt for Christopher Dorner, which entered its fourth day Saturday. Relentless snowfall on Friday grounded helicopters with heat-sensing technology and hampered their effort to find Dorner, whose burned-out pickup truck was found a day earlier in this ski resort town. SWAT teams in camouflage scoured the mountains and went door-to-door examining vacant cabins, aware to the reality they could be walking into a trap set by the well-trained former Navy reservist who knows their tactics and strategies as well as they do. "He can be behind every tree," said T. Gregory Hall, a retired tactical supervisor for a special emergency response team for the Pennsylvania State Police. "He can try to draw them into an ambush area where he backtracks." As authorities weathered heavy snow and freezing temperatures in the mountains, thousands of heavily armed police remained on the lookout throughout California, Nevada, Arizona and northern Mexico for a suspect bent on revenge and willing to die. Police said officers still were guarding more than 40 people mentioned as targets in a rant they said Dorner posted on Facebook. He vowed to use "every bit of small arms training, demolition, ordnance and survival training I've been given" to bring "warfare" to the LAPD and its families. The manhunt had Southern California residents on edge. Unconfirmed sightings were reported near Barstow, about 60 miles north of the mountain search, and in downtown Los Angeles. Some law enforcement officials said he appeared to be everywhere and nowhere, and speculated that he was trying to spread out their resources. For the time being, their focus was on the mountains 80 miles east of Los Angeles - a snowy wilderness, filled with thick forests and jagged peaks, that creates peril as much for Dorner as the officers hunting him. The small army hunting him has the advantage of strength in numbers and access to resources, such as special weapons, to bring him in. In his online rant, Dorner baited authorities. "Any threat assessments you generate will be useless," it read. "I have the strength and benefits of being unpredictable, unconventional, and unforgiving." Without the numbers that authorities have, Dorner holds one advantage: the element of surprise. Authorities said they do not know how long Dorner had been planning the rampage or why he drove to the San Bernardino Mountains. Property records show his mother owns undeveloped land nearby, but a search of the area found no sign of him. It was not clear if he had provisions, clothing or weapons stockpiled in the area. Even with training, days of cold and snow can be punishing. "Unless he is an expert in living in the California mountains in this time of year, he is going to be hurting," said former Navy SEAL Clint Sparks, who now works in tactical training and security. "Cold is a huge stress factor. ... Not everybody is survivor-man." Jamie Usera, an attorney in Salem, Ore., who befriended Dorner when they were students and football teammates at Southern Utah University, said he introduced him to the outdoors. Originally from Alaska, Usera said, he taught Dorner about hunting and other outdoor activities. "Of all the people I hung out with in college, he is the last guy I would have expected to be in this kind of situation," Usera, who had lost touch with Dorner is recent years, told the Los Angeles Times. Others saw Dorner differently. Court documents obtained by The Associated Press on Friday show an ex-girlfriend of Dorner's called him "severely emotionally and mentally disturbed" after the two split in 2006. Dorner served in the Navy, earning a rifle marksman ribbon and pistol expert medal. He was assigned to a naval undersea warfare unit and various aviation training units, according to military records. He took leave from the LAPD for a six-month deployment to Bahrain in 2006 and 2007. Last Friday was his last day with the Navy and also the day CNN's Anderson Cooper received a package that contained a note on it that read, in part, "I never lied." A coin riddled with bullet holes that former Chief William Bratton gave out as a souvenir was also in the package. Police said it was a sign of planning by Dorner before the killing began. On Sunday, police say Dorner shot and killed a couple in a parking garage at their condominium in Irvine. The woman was the daughter of a retired police captain who had represented Dorner in the disciplinary proceedings that led to his firing. Dorner wrote in his manifesto that he believed the retired captain had represented the interests of the department over his. Hours after authorities identified Dorner as a suspect in the double murder, police believe Dorner shot and grazed an LAPD officer in Corona and then used a rifle to ambush two Riverside police officers early Thursday, killing one and seriously wounding the other. The incident led police to believe he was armed with multiple weapons, including an assault-type rifle. That detail concerned officers whose bullet-proof vests can be penetrated by such high-powered weapons, said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. As a result, all LAPD officers have been required to work in pairs to ensure "a greater likelihood of coming out on top if there is an ambush," Albanese said. "We have no officers alone right now."