1. Various of flames and smoke on hillside

2. Wide of heavy smoke and flames on hillside, zoom-in to firefighters' helicopter flying overhead

3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Mark Savage, Fire Information Officer:

"The fire moved aggressively, even more so than even was expected and we've been dealing with some of that. But yesterday, particularly, was a lot of movement of the fire. It actually moved a mile (1.6 kilometres) north in 24 hours, which is well within our containment line, but we had to look at it and take a look and say then 'it is coming faster than we expected so let's put some things into action', it's bumped up our time lines and put us in what we would say is a more aggressive mode."

4. Various of flames on hillside

5. Various of firefighters cutting back excess brush as fire approaches

6. Zoom-out from signs to firefighters

7. Firefighters' truck arriving

8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Mark Savage, Fire Information Officer:

"We wished we had a better weather forecast, but we know that we are going to be challenged in the next few days in those areas, so we really need to get a bigger buffer for us, and that's the plan. But with the fire spotting, it can spot up to a half, to three-quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometres), embers are falling and igniting outside of, in some of our containment lines and some areas, we are able to pick it up with aircraft, but that certainly is a challenge for us as well and it's happening on all areas of the fire."

9. Helicopter dropping water on fire

10. Plane dropping fire retardant on fire

11. Flames and smoke

12. Plane dropping fire retardant

13. Various of homes destroyed by fire

14. Destroyed home with remnants of oven in background

15. Remnants of oven

16. Various of destroyed home

Cooler weather on Sunday helped US fire crews attacking a two-week-old blaze that has destroyed 22 homes in the tourist town of Big Sur, at the northern end of California's Los Padres forest.

AP Television footage showed firefighters battling the flames from helicopters, planes and from the ground.

Fire Information Officer Mark Savage told AP Television how hard the fire crews have been working against the fire.

"The fire moved aggressively, even more so than even was expected and we've been dealing with some of that. But yesterday, particularly, was a lot of movement of the fire," he said.

"It's bumped up our time lines and put us in what we would say is a more aggressive mode," he added.

Savage explained that the days ahead would still present big challenges for his crews.

"We wished we had a better weather forecast, but we know that we are going to be challenged in the next few days in those areas, so we really need to get a bigger buffer for us, and that's the plan," he said.

Meanwhile, cooler weather gave a boost to crews battling an enormous wildfire on California's central coast that was threatening nearly 2,700 homes.

The four-day-old fire in the Los Padres National Forest near Santa Barbara, which had blackened about 13 square miles (34 square kilometres), spread slightly during the night but firefighting crews were able to keep up with it, a county spokeswoman.

As of Sunday morning, the fire in the area of the town of Goleta was 28 percent contained, the spokeswoman said.

And with lower wind and higher humidity forecast for Sunday, crews were optimistic they could get more acreage under control.

Wildfires have charred more than 800 square miles (2,000 square kilometres) of forest, brush and grass and have destroyed at least 69 homes throughout California, mainly in the northern part of the state, in the past two weeks.

One firefighter died of a heart attack.

According to state forestry officials, at one time there were more than 1,700 active fires, but about 1,400 had been contained, leaving more than 330 still out of control on Sunday morning.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who on Saturday visited a command post in Santa Barbara County, has ordered 400 National Guard troops trained to help fight the blazes.

He also urged lawmakers to adopt his budget plan for a 70 (m) million US dollar emergency surcharge on home and business insurance policies to buy more firefighting equipment.

Nearly 2,700 homes in Santa Barbara County remained under mandatory evacuation orders on Sunday and residents of 1,400 others were warned to be ready to flee.

The fire, fuelled by 15-foot (4.6-metre)-high, half-century-old chaparral, still had the potential to roll through a hilly area of ranches, housing tracts and orchards between the town of Goleta and Santa Barbara, keeping firefighters on their toes.

Investigators think the fire, which began on Tuesday, was human-caused.