GILROY - Fire crews struggled on Friday to maintain fire lines around a wildfire that chewed through centuries-old redwoods and pushed hundreds out of their homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Gusty winds picked up in the afternoon after heavy morning fog had given much-needed relief to firefighters who contained more than 20 percent of the blaze.

The fire, which burned about 5 square miles, had destroyed 30 structures, including 10 homes, officials said. Another 600 were threatened.

About 1,400 residents remained under evacuation orders - more than 300 of them mandatory - while more than 1,100 firefighters and a swarm of tanker planes and helicopters continued dousing the area, said Joe Waterman, an incident commander with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

"We have a lot of forces mobilized, and we are optimistic we'll be able to hold it today," he said.

No injuries have been reported from the fire, which was first reported Thursday morning in the mountain range that separates Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties. The area, about 15 miles south of San Jose, is rural but dotted with homes.

The cause remained under investigation.

Firefighters made significant progress overnight after a tumultuous Thursday, when winds gusting up to 50 mph frustrated efforts to fight the fast-growing blaze. The flames ravaged tiny communities tucked into the rugged terrain, including Maymens Flat, where Chris Puett ran the Taj Meow animal sanctuary.

Puett wandered around his wooded property trying to contain his grief as he took stock of all he'd lost Friday.

"It's burnt to the ground," he said of the three-story building. "There was a pond, and the fish are all belly up. I'm just trying to round up the survivors."

Of the approximately 120 dogs, cats and birds he cared for - mostly abandoned pets - Puett said knows he's lost four dogs and 17 cats. But he won't know until all the survivors wander back, some nursing burnt paws, ears or whiskers.

"Pretty soon, their stomach is going to overrun their fear, and they'll come back in," he said. "I'm just going to rebuild, start back up as soon as I can, to give the ones who are still alive a place to come back to."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited with firefighters in the area and assessed the damage on Friday.

At a noon briefing with state fire officials in Gilroy, Schwarzenegger reported that firefighting had cost $800,000 so far. The governor had declared a state of emergency in Santa Cruz County a day earlier to allow access to funds for the effort.

In Southern California, stormy weather mudslides and snow.

In Sierra Madre, just northeast of Los Angeles, dirty brown water and sludge washed onto the roads in a densely populated canyon below foothills that were burned bare by a wildfire about a month ago. Residents were urged to leave Thursday night when thunderstorms pounded the hillsides but few did, said James Carlson of the city's emergency operations center.

No homes were in immediate danger Friday but the voluntary evacuation remained in effect, he said.

"We are definitely watching the weather," he added.

Some 2 inches of snow frosted trees in Wrightwood, a ski resort east of Los Angeles, where just last week the temperature hit 90 degrees.

But "it's a very wet snow," said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. "It'll melt rapidly. Probably by Sunday, it will all be gone."