MALIBU, Calif — Some residents who fled Southern California’s huge wildfire were allowed to return home Monday but hundreds of thousands remained under evacuation orders as authorities said the number of homes that burned was expected to grow significantly.

Officials were still conducting damage assessments and Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said he expected those inspections would show hundreds more homes incinerated on top of the 370 already counted.

Firefighters managed to prevent about 57,000 homes from destruction by the so-called Woosley fire as it raged along a path 20 miles (32 kilometers) long and 14 miles (23 kilometers) wide from northwestern Los Angeles through suburbs and the Santa Monica Mountains to the Malibu coast, Osby said.

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