Photos by Tony Avelar / AP A firefighter walks along a large hill backfire Friday in Big Sur. The raging blaze along California's central coast was one of more than 1,700 wildfires, mostly ignited by lightning, that have scorched hundreds of square miles.

Firefighters were keeping a 6,660-acre wildfire north of Santa Barbara in check Friday evening, despite the return of the "sundowner" winds for which the region is well known.

"There really isn't too much brush and vegetation left to burn," Bill White, a captain with the Atascadero Fire Department, said by telephone from Goleta.

The fire had already raced down the Santa Ynez Mountains "like a freight train" the night before, White said, fanned by the sundowners. It burned pretty much everything in its path, White said, including a half-dozen outbuildings, an RV and 10 cars. But the Gap fire had yet to take any of the hundreds of homes in the valleys below.

"They've done a great job of protecting the homes," White said of the firefighters, who had achieved a 14 percent containment of the fire.

Still, he said, "the fire could make another run" later Friday evening, just as it had the night before. "It really is going to depend on how strong the sundowners get."

The fire was so fierce early Friday morning that firefighters at one point took shelter in about 70 homes they were trying to defend, said Capt. Eli Iskow of the county Fire Department.

The Gap fire was one of 335 wildfires burning across California on Friday, including a 20-acre blaze southwest of Calabasas that caused the evacuation of Malibu Creek State Park.

Smoke from the Gap fire and possibly others burning in Northern California drifted south to Ventura County. A sheriff's dispatcher said Friday she'd received numerous calls from residents, many of them around Ojai, complaining of smoke-filled air.

The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District issued an air quality advisory for the county through the holiday weekend. "Due to a high-pressure weather pattern, smoke is expected to be a concern for the next several days," the advisory states. Air pollution officials are encouraging anyone with heart or lung disease to stay indoors as much as possible.

Authorities are anxious to control the fire before hotter weather, which is forecast for sometime Monday, arrives.

California has had 1,781 wildfires since June 20, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Fire officials across the state have said their work crews are dangerously overextended given the hundreds of wildfires that have plagued California since mid-June.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered 200 National Guard troops on Tuesday to help fight the wildfires, and an additional 200 on Friday.

State officials also declared the Goleta fire to be the state's top firefighting priority.

"More firefighters are en route even as we speak," White said. They will join 1,073 already assigned to the Gap fire.

About 1,700 residences had been evacuated during the blaze, but no one had been killed or hurt because of the fires as of Friday evening, White said, although four firefighters had minor eye injuries. Two of the four also suffered smoke inhalation, he said.

In Los Angeles County, southwest of Calabasas, a wildfire burned about 20 acres near Las Virgenes Road on Friday afternoon. The fire was 90 percent contained by 7:15 p.m.

The blaze broke out about 3:30 p.m. in a sparsely populated area, said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Darryl Jacobs. He said a man working on his mobile home sparked the fire, which burned not far from a Hindu temple and the historic King Gillette Ranch, built in the 1920s for razor magnate King C. Gillette.

More than 299 people camping nearby were forced to leave, said National Park Service fire chief Kathy Kirkpatrick. She said all campsites in the area are at capacity for the July Fourth weekend.

Hundreds of firefighters also continued their battle Friday against a wildfire near Big Sur in Monterey County. The fire, which broke out June 21, had destroyed at least 20 homes as of Thursday. It was also only about 5 percent contained. Wildfires have destroyed 34 homes, one commercial building and 32 sheds since the wave of brush fires began on June 20, according to state officials.

In Ventura County, meanwhile, fire officials remained on alert. While much of the vegetation around the county is still green, fire officials say it is extremely flammable because of low fuel-moisture content.

"We normally don't see such low fuel-moisture until late August or early September," said Bill Nash, a Ventura County Fire Department spokesman.

Nash urged county residents to be especially alert this weekend to the high danger of fire.

"If you see something suspicious, please report it," he said.

— Correspondent Charles Ellis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.