Foggy conditions helps stall wildfires

CHILLY temperatures and dense fog helped stall the deadly wildfires that raced across Southern California yesterday as a few hardy residents waited nervously to see if the flames would claim the last sizeable town still under threat.

Some 15,000 people evacuated a resort town in the mountains northeast of Los Angeles the only major community still threatened after a week of fires that have killed 20 people, destroyed more than 2,800 homes and burned nearly 750,000 acres.

"Mother Nature is finally starting to help us here," Andrea Tuttle, director of the California Department of Forestry, told NBC's "Today" show. "We're hoping that within the week the hot flames will be died down."