MALIBU, Calif. • Strong Santa Ana winds returned to Southern California on Sunday, fanning a huge wildfire that has scorched a string of communities west of Los Angeles.

Huge plumes of smoke were rising again in the fire area, which stretches miles from the northwest corner of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley to the Malibu coast.

Aircraft swooped low over flaming hills to drop lines of fire retardant as flames marched through brush lands on the edges of cul-de-sac communities.

A one-day lull in the dry, northeasterly winds ended at midmorning, and authorities warned that the gusts would continue through Tuesday.

The lull allowed firefighters to gain 10 percent control of the Woolsey fire, which has burned more than 130 square miles in western Los Angeles County and southeastern Ventura County since Thursday.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby stressed there were numerous hotspots, and plenty of fuel that had not yet burned.

The count of destroyed homes remained at 177, but it was expected to increase. Osby noted that a November 1993 wildfire in Malibu destroyed more than 270 homes and said he would not be surprised if the total from the current fire would be higher.

The death toll stood at two. The severely burned bodies were discovered in a long residential driveway on a stretch of Mulholland Highway in Malibu, where most of the surrounding structures had burned.

The deaths came as authorities in Northern California announced the death toll from a massive wildfire there has reached 23 people, bringing the statewide total to 25.

Progress was made on the lines of a smaller fire to the west in Ventura County, which was 70 percent contained at about 7 square miles, and evacuations were greatly reduced. But thousands remained under evacuation orders due to the Woolsey fire.

Three firefighters suffered injuries, authorities said.

Also injured was a well-known member of the Malibu City Council. Councilman Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner was injured while trying to save his home, which burned down, Councilman Skylar Peak said Sunday.

Wagner runs Zuma Jay Surfboards, a longtime fixture on Pacific Coast Highway near the landmark Malibu Pier.

Areas that suffered significant destruction included Seminole Springs, a mobile home community nestled by a lake in the rugged Santa Monica Mountains north of Malibu.

“I smelled the fire and didn’t think, grabbed my dog and left,” resident Lisa Kin said Sunday, tears in her eyes and her voice breaking. “It hasn’t burned in decades, and I knew we didn’t stand a chance.”

A home overlooking the Pacific Ocean is consumed by a wildfire Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018, in Malibu, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Jae C. Hong