Updated 2:57 p.m.: Some residents can return home 
 
 A wildfire that broke out late last week and quickly overwhelmed whole towns near Lake Isabella in Kern County has so far cost an estimated $7.6 million, killed two people and destroyed 200 homes. The burned out remains of a pickup are seen as power crews work to restore power in fire ravaged South Lake, Calif, Monday, June 27, 2016. Federal fire officials said containment on the 68-square-mile Erskine Fire in Kern County increased from 10 percent to 40 percent. "You have these moments where you just want to break down crying and fall apart." Cadaver dogs searched through the rubble of devastated neighborhoods for more possible casualties, though remains found over the weekend were identified as an animal, Kern County sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt said. The fire began Thursday and quickly exploded in dry brush and bore down on small communities of houses and mobile homes that surround Lake Isabella, a dammed section of the scenic Kern River popular for fishing, whitewater rafting and other outdoor activities. In addition to the destroyed homes, another 75 were damaged. An elderly couple apparently was overcome by smoke as they tried to flee, county Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. Their bodies were found Friday, but their names haven't been released. ___ 
 
 Melley reported from Los Angeles.
– Byron McKaig was a devoted husband until the very end. The 81-year-old Anglican priest perished alongside his 90-year-old wife, Gladys, in central California's Lake Isabella wildfire last week, and a neighbor tells the Los Angeles Times that he appears to have died trying to protect his wife. Bill Johnson found their bodies next to a fence near the burning remains of their home. "They were together, like he was blocking her from the fire," says Johnson. "It made me sick because immediately I saw and knew exactly what had happened—that they were alive and ran out of this burning inferno and got stuck, and that was where they ended." Officials say the McKaigs were overcome by smoke, and they appear to have been the only people killed by the massive blaze, which destroyed around 200 homes, KPCC reports. The fire is still only 40% contained, and authorities warn that there could be more destruction if winds blow it back toward populated areas. "There's still more threats out there," fire Chief Brian Marshall tells the AP. "This is going to go down as the most destructive wildfire in Kern County history." He says the residents of the communities surrounding Lake Isabella, including many elderly people, had little warning when the fire suddenly swept in on Thursday and some of them barely escaped with their lives. Weather.com reports that the fire, which authorities hope to have fully contained by Thursday, has become so huge that the blaze and plumes of smoke are clearly visible in images from space. (One odd new tool in the study of wildfires: rattlesnakes.)