MOUNT BALDY VILLAGE, Calif. -- Firefighters battled a wildfire that grew to more than 300 acres Wednesday on Mount Baldy in Angeles National Forest.

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The blaze, dubbed the "Bighorn Incident," was burning between the 5,800-foot and 6,200-foot levels of the 10,064-foot peak in the San Gabriel Mountains about 45 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

"It's laying now so hopefully we can get a line around it while it's calm," U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Dee Dechert said. "Today's the crucial day."

The fire, which started shortly before 5 a.m. Tuesday, was about 10 percent contained by Wednesday morning, according to the Angeles National Forest Fire Information Center.

The blaze started amid strong winds west of Mount Baldy Village and eventually prompted 30 to 40 evacuations in the Bear Canyon area, according to Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Ron Haralson.

The fire started in the San Bernardino National Forest and spread into the Angeles National Forest. The county line runs through the center Mount Baldy Village.

Firefighters were working with sustained wind at 15 to 20 mph and gusts up to 50 mph. Swirling gusts pushed the flames uphill one minute and sideways the next, although the fire was generally moving slowly west and southwest, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Stanton Florea.

"We're not seeing the explosive, uphill, downhill fire behavior that we see in the fall when we have Santa Ana (winds)," he said.

Winds were high enough to prevent the use of two large air tankers that could not safely fly low enough to make effective drops into the steep canyons, Florea said.

Temperatures were forecast to rise and winds to pick up in the next few days, Dechert said. Forecasts for Thursday called for highs in the 90s and winds gusting to 45 mph.

"It's warmer than the firefighters like it, and it's drier than the firefighters like it," said KNBC forecaster Fritz Coleman.

The number of firefighters assigned to the blaze was nearly doubled to about 400 as additional teams responded.

No buildings have been lost, and no injuries have been reported.

Brush was "fairly sparse in some places" but the grass, chaparral and light timber had not burned since 1975 and was high in some places, Florea said.

At least five helicopters, including three Los Angeles County choppers, were assigned to the fire, and firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service and San Bernardino County were assisting in the effort.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department sent a helicopter with a hoist to help two hikers who reported being stranded by the fire, spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said.

A woman and her father called for help by cell phone at about 7:30 a.m.

"They stated they were exhausted and unsure where to go," Beavers said. "They could see helicopters but were not able to get their attention."

The cause of the fire was not known but Florea said many of the fires in the 680,000-acre national forest have been human-caused.

KNBC's Mary Parks reported the suspected cause may be an unattended campfire.

It was the second large wildfire of the year in Angeles National Forest, Florea said. In late April a fire forced evacuation of 1,000 residents of the foothill city of Sierra Madre. That blaze charred more than 500 acres.