"There's two or three groves that are out there, not too far away. But the lucky thing is that last night the fire took off to the east, in the other direction," Carpenter said.

"At this point the fire is moving away from the trees. But that could change," he said.

Firefighters using helicopters, bulldozers and water tenders fought to clear away heavy brush and dry timber in the forest, which lies in the southern Sierra mountains about 120 miles (190 km) northeast of Los Angeles.

Officials have ordered the evacuation of about 1,000 people from homes and summer camps in the area, and Carpenter said there was no indication on when they might be permitted to return.

"The fire is still zero percent contained," he said. "But we are hoping the fire will continue to move east, as there is no development in that direction."

The Sequoia National Forest is one of the most active wildfire areas in California, with about 9,400 acres (3,800 hectares) burning annually.

The Forest has over 34,000 acres (13,700 hectares) of Giant Sequoia Groves, accounting for over 90 percent of all Giant Sequoias on National Forest Lands. The Giant Sequoia National Monument, which President Bill Clinton established in 2000, consists of about 328,000 acres (132,700 hectares) of federal land established to provide protection to the trees, which can live for more than 3,000 years and are the largest trees on earth.

Fire officials said Tuesday the wildfire did not appear to threaten the General Sherman Tree, which measures 30 feet (10 metres) across at its base and stands 275 feet (90 metres) tall and is recognized as the largest living thing, by volume, in the world.

FEROCIOUS FIRE SEASON

The California fire came as the western United States faces one of the worst wildfire seasons on record. Already, major blazes have scorched Colorado and Arizona, and fire control officials warn that more is to come as the region struggles through a widespread drought.

Some 3.7 million acres (1.5 million hectares) have already burned this year, compared with a 10-year average for the period of 1.7 million acres (688,000 hectares) and 2.9 million acres (1.2 million hectares) in 2000, the worst fire season in recent memory.

Rain helped quiet some of the worst fires in southern Oregon overnight and fire crews expected to increase their control from 40 percent across 97,000 blackened acres (39,000 hectares) of arid high desert country.

"The night crews were able to do quite a bit of work," said John Zapell, a fire spokesman. "Our outlook is really good. The rain really knocked the fire down."

In the rugged backcountry near Washington state's Lake Chelan, the fires have grown to nearly 24,000 acres (9,720 hectares) but containment increased to 30 percent from 10 percent overnight, bolstered in large part by lakefronts.

Ignited by an abandoned campfire just a week ago, the fire has driven residents out of 200 homes in nearby Manson, Washington, as it burned rapidly through dry grasses, shrubs and rocky forests.

"There's still 25 miles (40 km) of fire line to build, so there's a lot of work to do here," said Koshare Lomnicki, spokeswoman for the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests.