Southern California wildfire grows, burns nature center

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The destruction wrought by a wind-driven wildfire in the mountains northeast of Los Angeles is approaching 156 square miles, burning structures, homes and a nature center in a famed Southern California wildlife sanctuary in foothill desert communities.

Across California, authorities say Sunday nearly 19,000 firefighters continue to fight more than two dozen major wildfires.

Officials are also investigating the death of a firefighter on the lines of another Southern California wildfire that erupted earlier this month from a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used by a couple to reveal their baby’s gender.

Neither the firefighter nor the couple’s identities have been released.