Even as firefighters and state officials expressed guarded optimism about their chances to contain a week-old wildfire that has consumed more than 120,000 acres north of Los Angeles, local residents remained scared. Evacuees pondered the fate of their homes, while others wondered if their turn to flee would be next.

At Chabad-Lubavitch of Glendale and the Foothill Communities, a synagogue and community center for the few thousand families in the area, Rabbi Simcha Backman said that he could see the flames from his house. He wasn’t concerned for his own property, but he said that many of his community members were forced in the past couple of days to evacuate in the face of fast-moving flames.

His staff has directed some to emergency services, helped others book hotel rooms, and assisted in paying for rooms for others.

“We’ve been helping anybody who needs our assistance,” reported Backman. “Thankfully, most people around here can afford their own emergency accommodations, but at times like these, even simple things can become impossible tasks. It’s difficult to call around looking for shelter when you see fire inching up behind your home.”

Of particular note, said the rabbi, was that some members were putting up evacuees in their homes. He’s been spending an increasing amount of time placing families on the run with others whom fate has allowed to stay put.

“I remember in 2003, there was a fire right up the block from my house,” he detailed. “But up until now, the homes that have been destroyed have been in the mountains. Most of the firefighters’ efforts are to keep it out of Los Angeles.”

In the neighboring community of Pasadena, which appeared to be in the fire’s crosshairs on Sunday, Rabbi Chaim Hanoka said that he had several community members who were ordered to evacuate. On Saturday night, he explained, everything was clear, but the following morning, smoke blocked out the sun.

“I just walked outside of my house and couldn’t see anything,” said Hanoka, director of Chabad of Pasadena. “It’s a very fluid situation.”

Meanwhile, officials issued new mandatory evacuations orders early Thursday for 15-20 homes in the Dillon Divide, Pacoima Creek area which is located north of Little Tujunga Canyon due to the Station Fire.

John Huschke of the U.S. Forest Service says 15 to 20 homes were ordered evacuated at around 4 a.m. Thursday as downslope winds pushed flames into Pacoima Canyon northeast of Los Angeles.

The canyon lies in a 5-mile gap in firelines that crews hope to close later in the day.

Bulldozers are carving fire breaks along the southeast flank of a 219-square-mile fire to keep a flare-up of flames away from thousands of foothill homes in Pasadena, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Duarte and Monrovia.

Fire spokeswoman Jennifer Sanchez said early Thursday that the vegetation-clearing construction of containment lines is designed to keep flames in remote mountain areas above the cities, adding “dozer lines have been successful.”

She says 12,000 homes are threatened.

The fire is 38 percent containmed. Full containment is expected Sept. 15.

Officials said they were pleased with the progress, but said they have much more work ahead as the forecast called for hot and dry weather in the next couple days.

Since the flames erupted beside a remote mountain highway on Aug. 26, the Station Fire has ravaged nearly 14,743 acres, of the Angeles National Forest.

The blaze destroyed 64 homes, killed two firefighters and forced thousands to evacuate.

A firefighting force atop Mount Wilson has managed to keep flames from reaching communications infrastructure and a historic observatory.

The search for what sparked one of the largest wildfires in Southern California history intensified Wednesday when U.S. Forest Service investigators gathered along a road in a blackened forest to hunt for clues near where the fire started.

They shook soil in a can and planted red, blue and yellow flags to mark evidence beneath a partially burned oak tree at the bottom of a ravine.

Deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said the fire was “human caused,” meaning it could have been started by anything from a dropped cigarette to a spark from something like a lawn mower.

Forest Service officials said there was no lightning in the area at the time and no power lines in the vicinity, but later backtracked on Joseph’s comments, saying they are looking at all possible causes.

“The only thing I can say is it is possibly human activity,” Forest Service Commander Rita Wears said.

(Source: Chabad.org / CBS News)