Firefighters made more progress Wednesday against a giant wildfire that has ravaged a national fores

(2 Sep 2009) HEADLINE: Weather helping fight against massive LA blaze CAPTION: Firefighters made more progress Wednesday against a giant wildfire that has ravaged a national forest north of Los Angeles, with another day of cooperative weather. AP's Rich Matthews reports. (Sept. 2) [Notes:ANCHOR VOICE] NB. THIS IS A VOICEOVER TRANSCRIPT, NOT A FULL SHOT LIST. (vo) WEDNESDAY MORNING THE ONLY ORANGE GLOW IN THE FOOTHILLS OF LOS ANGELES CAME FROM THE SUN, A GOOD SIGN FOR WEARY FIREFIGHTERS... BUT COMMANDERS ARE WARNING THEIR CREWS AGAINST GETTING TOO CONFIDENT.. (SOT)CAPTAIN MARK WHALING/LA COUNTY FIRE this is a long haul fight, we've gained a little gorund but we have days and days and days before we can look forward to the end of this fire.. (VO) THE FIRE IS MASSIVE AND GREW IN SIZE OVERNIGHT NOW AT AN ESTIMATED 140,000 ACRES SCORCHING AN AREA GREATER THAN THE SIZE OF CHICAGO... WEATHER TODAY IS EXPECTED TO BE A MIXED BAG. (SOT)-WHALING AGAIN yesterday we had humidity of up to 50 percent we now know we're going to be down to 10-20 percent.. that's gonna clear the air so the tankers can fly more but it also means firefighters will be dealing with much more intense fire.. (VO) THE COSTS OF FIGHTING THIS FIRE FOR CASH STRAPPED CALIFORNIA ALSO MOUNTING, SO FAR MORE THAN 21 MILLION DOLLARS HAS SPENT ON EVERYTHING FROM FOOD AND SHELTER FOR FIREFIGHTERS TO HELICOPTERS AND PLANES FOR WATER DROPS... (STANDUP CLOSE) OPTIMISIM ABOUNDS HERE TODAY, BUT IT IS TEMPERED BY EXTREME FATIGUE, MANY OF THESE FIREFIGHTERS HAVE BEEN ON THE LINES FOR 7 STRAIGHT DAYS, 7 STRAIGHT DAYS OF GRUELING WORK IN 100 PLUS DEGREE TEMPERATURES, THAT'S WHY COMMANDERS ARE BEING SO FORCEFUL ABOUT NOT LETTING THEIR GUARD DOWN TOO SOON. RICH MATTHEWS THE AP LOS ANGELES. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...