Firefighters from the Los Angeles Fire Department work Friday at a home destroyed by the Mountain Fire in Camarillo, California.

Jae C. Hong/AP

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Jae C. Hong/AP

CAMARILLO, Calif. — Southern California firefighters gained ground Friday against a wildfire that has destroyed at least 132 structures, mostly homes, as favorable conditions were expected to last through the weekend after two days of dangerous wind gusts.

Forecasters expect light winds this weekend that will continue to aid firefighters. Meteorologists are monitoring a weather system that could hit Southern California next week, but the weather is not expected to bring another round of extreme winds like earlier this week.

Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff said Friday that 3,500 homes have been repopulated, but residents of 2,000 homes still cannot return.

Maryanne Belote was among those who returned Friday to search the charred remains of their property. She went home to her hillside neighborhood in Camarillo, a city northwest of Los Angeles, after making a harrowing escape with her cat, her dog and her horses as the fire raged in the area. The only thing standing was a rock wall she had built.

“If I hadn’t gotten the horses I would have been devastated, but I have my family and I have my animals so I’m doing well. I will rebuild it,” she said, standing outside the remains of her home of 50 years while her dog remained in her car.

The Mountain Fire started Wednesday morning in Ventura County and had grown to 32 square miles (about 83 square kilometers). By Friday evening, 14% were under control.

“We had no external or lateral movement today,” Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said Friday. “That’s fantastic.”

Bill Nardoni and his family searched the rubble of their Camarillo home Friday afternoon and discovered his wedding ring in a safe. But his wife’s, which was kept in another safe in another part of their home, remained missing and Nardoni did not have high hopes that it would be found intact.

Nardoni, his wife and his visiting mother-in-law fled with their dogs Wednesday morning as flames engulfed either side of the road. On Friday, they returned devastated to a house they had bought just a year ago and was still being renovated.

“The house has been decimated. There is really nothing to save,” he said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

For three days, thousands of people were under evacuation orders as the fire threatened about 3,500 buildings in suburbs, farms and agricultural areas around Camarillo in Ventura County.

In addition to the 132 destroyed, at least 88 additional structures were damaged. Officials did not indicate whether they were burned or affected by water or smoke damage. The cause of the fire has not been determined.

Ten people suffered smoke inhalation or other injuries that were not life-threatening, Fryhoff said Thursday.

The next day, the sheriff said his deputies will deploy cadaver dogs to the area as a precaution, even though no one has been reported missing.

Officials in several Southern California counties have urged residents to be alert for fast-spreading fires, power outages and downed trees during the latest round of infamous Santa Ana winds, including in a rural area of ​​northern San Diego County, where a forest fire led to mandatory evacuations Friday afternoon.

Santa Anas are dry, warm and gusty northeasterly winds that blow from inland Southern California toward the coast and offshore, moving in the opposite direction of the normal onshore current that carries moist air from the Pacific Ocean. They usually occur during the fall months and continue through the winter and into early spring.

Red flag warnings, which indicate high fire danger conditions, expired Thursday in most of the area, except in the Santa Susana Mountains, where the warnings expired Friday morning as winds began to diminish.

Due to the smoke from the forest fires, an air quality warning due to harmful particulate matter pollution was in force from Friday morning to Saturday afternoon.

More than a dozen school districts and campuses in Ventura County were closed Friday due to the impact of the fires, the county’s Office of Education said.

The Mountain Fire raged in a region that has seen some of California’s most destructive fires over the years. The fire quickly grew from less than half a square mile (about 1.2 square kilometers) to more than 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) in just over five hours on Wednesday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in Ventura County.