Rising temperatures on Wednesday posed new challenges for firefighters who have made incremental progress against a massive wildfire in central California that injured four people as it became the biggest blaze in the state so far this year.

A massive wildfire on Monday was threatening hundreds of homes in central California after injuring at least three people as it tore through Los Padres National Forest. The Gifford Fire scorched more than 100 square miles (260 square km) of coastal Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties,