Crews slow progress of blaze in California

Firefighters battling a California wildfire that has burned through more than 13 square kilometres of the high Sierra made significant progress slowing its growth on Wednesday, but hundreds of residents whose homes are threatened remained under evacuation orders.

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The battle against a wildfire also got a boost in South Dakota thanks to cooler weather and lighter winds.

Residents of the state's second-largest city have been on edge, ready to flee if flames from a nearby blaze moved dangerously close.

Estimated containment of the Northern California fire burning about 80 kilometres north of Lake Tahoe remained at 0 per cent. But fire officials said it grew only a few hundred acres on Wednesday as more than 400 firefighters successfully attacked the flames directly on the ground and with retardant drops from the air.

Greg Lowdermilk, a sections operation chief for the interagency team, said they were continuing to build new fire lines by hand and with bulldozers and began laying additional hose "so we can continue to increase containment."