BIG SUR – Residents of this small coastal community made their way through smoke and ash to check on their homes Tuesday, as wildfires continued raging around the state, prompting new evacuations in another town 300 miles to the north.

Although the fire threatening Big Sur is far from controlled – the rugged terrain has kept containment at 18 percent into the fire's third week – authorities lifted the mandatory evacuation order issued for 25 miles of the 31-mile stretch along the Pacific Coast Highway that had been closed.

At least 23 homes and 25 other structures have been destroyed in the area as the flames marched over more than 80,000 acres of forest land since June 21.

Meanwhile, winds of up to 30 mph fanned a blaze in Butte County, where firefighters went door to door overnight to evacuate between 800 and 1,000 residents from the town of Concow, 85 miles north of Sacramento.

A 9,600-acre fire threatening the rural town is one of 30 blazes that have been burning for weeks there.

“Now you're in a hell of a fire fight,” said Todd Simmons, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Two homes have been destroyed, and the complex of fires in Butte was about 55 percent contained.

Many of the 1,500 evacuated residents of Big Sur headed home Tuesday morning, anxious to gauge the damage to their community.

Dena Angelique, 34, unloaded hastily packed bags of books, photos, art supplies and clothes from the back of her dusty four-runner after a week away from her home.

She was relieved to find the fire had stopped within 100 yards of the wood-frame house, though it had charred the opposing mountainside. Angelique wasn't sure how long she'd stay, since smoke and ashes still floated among the blackened remains of oak and pine, burning her throat.

“It was so insane watching the whole hillside burning,” she said. “It's so nice to come back and know that we're safer here now.”

Officials, however, cautioned that the lifted evacuation orders did not mean conditions were drastically improved.

“They still have an awful lot of active fire there. ... There were 2,500 residences still threatened,” said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Juanita Freel, who added that the officials simply were trying to be sensitive to residents' needs to check on their properties.

Homes in southern Santa Barbara County also were still threatened by another fire in the Los Padres forest above the city of Goleta.

More than 2,000 residents were allowed to return to their homes in Goleta on Monday, but about 275 homes remained under mandatory evacuation orders and 3,200 other homes were in areas where residents had been warned to be ready to leave. That fire is about 35 percent contained.

“Overall, the fire has calmed down in our most populated areas. ... Right now, we have a good fog layer, which is to our advantage,” but temperatures were expected to top 100 degrees in the area, fire spokeswoman Pat Wheatley said Tuesday morning.

A heat wave forecast for the state not only raised the fire danger, but also concerns about heat illness among firefighters worn down by the long fight, officials said.

“We do have a lot of fatigue because of the low numbers of resources in the state,” said Thom Walsh, a Forest Service resource unit leader.

Fire crews have been straining to cover the 330 active wildfires remaining around California from a series of blazes ignited by a lightning storm that struck on the night of June 20. In all, flames have consumed more than 985 square miles.

Crews took rest breaks in refrigerated trailers with bunk beds before returning to the field, but heat stroke was a worry, Walsh said.

Associated Press Writers Juliana Barbassa and Evelyn Nieves in San Francisco and Christina Hoag in Los Angeles.