Firefighters shared the credit for snuffing out the devastating fires with Mother Nature, who drenched the flames on Saturday with heavy rains, snow and near freezing temperatures - conditions that were due to continue for the next few days.

"This is the day we didn't believe we would ever see," said Andrea Tuttle, director of the California Department of Forestry. "We don't have any more hot flames anywhere."

By noon on Sunday, 2,500 firefighters were on their way home to Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and North Carolina.

About 14,500 firefighters were still manning the perimeters of four fires not fully contained. At one time there were 12 roaring infernos in the southern portion of the state. Eight were reported to be fully contained as of Sunday morning.

The still-active fires were between 70 percent and 95 percent contained and full containment was expected by Monday night.

Looking back on the disaster, Tuttle said: "The real story is the hundreds of thousands of structures saved."

She added there were still some smoldering spots, but fire crews were cleaning those up.

Outgoing California Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, who met fire evacuees at a disaster relief center in Claremont, east of Los Angeles, with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, said he had asked that the federal government shoulder more than the usual 75 percent cost of disaster emergency relief funds.

With a potential $10 billion budget gap for 2004, California can ill afford the fire bill, which has been estimated by various state officials at between $2 billion and $12 billion.

GOVERNMENT AID CHECKS IN THE MAIL Davis said more than 5,000 residents had applied for government aid. Ridge said checks for fire victims should be in the mail next week.

Mike McGroarty, deputy chief of fire operation for California's Office of Emergency Services, said the fires, which killed 20 people, injured more than 200 firefighters and forced tens of thousands to evacuate, had "pretty much slowed, and in some cases have stopped."

More of the 100,000-plus residents who fled their homes in the past week were allowed to go back to their communities to see if their homes were among the more than 3,440 consumed by flames. A spokeswoman for the California Emergency Operations Center said the number of razed homes was growing as more assessment teams were able to get into the burned out areas. "The figure is still preliminary," she said.

About 67,000 evacuees remain in shelters, among them the residents of Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains.

The rains that hit the area on Saturday also brought rockslides, blocking state Highway 18, the only road into the popular tourist resort.