Wildfire burns on a hillside near Montecito, California. Crews battling wildfires ravaging southern California for a week have managed to slow the spread of the worst of the blazes, officials said yesterday. The fire called “Thomas” has charred nearly 234,000 acres of land and is only 20% contained, according to the state agency Calfire. But in the past 24 hours that figure has risen by only a thousand hectares. Evacuation orders were issued for threatened areas in Montecito, Summerland and Santa Barbara.