LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A blast outside a Los Angeles-area synagogue this week was caused by an explosive device and police on Saturday were looking for a suspect, authorities said.

The explosion on Thursday near the Chabad House in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica injured no one and was blamed by police that day on a mechanical failure.

The blast sent a pipe hurtling through the air and crashing onto an apartment building next to the synagogue.

Santa Monica police said in a statement late on Friday that they were looking for a transient suspect named Ron Hirsch in connection with the blast.

In the course of examining the scene, investigators determined the blast was actually caused by an explosive device, police said.

Police gave no details on how the device was constructed, but they said items found in and around the mechanism were linked to Hirsch, who also goes by the name Israel Fisher.

Hirsch is known to frequent synagogues and Jewish community centers seeking charity, police said.

Police also released a photo of Hirsch, showing him to be heavy-set and bearded with green eyes.

Hirsch is considered "extremely dangerous," police said.

The FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Los Angeles Police Department are also involved in the investigation.

In the first hours after the blast, police said it appeared to have been caused by a pipe bomb. But they reversed themselves that day and said it was due to a mechanical failure, before investigators came to their latest conclusion and started a manhunt for Hirsch.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst)

LUBBOCK, Texas (Reuters) – Firefighters from across the country expected no help from the weather on Saturday as they battled a remote, fast-moving 61,000-acre blaze in Texas.

A huge, dark thunderhead of smoke visible for miles hung over Stonewall County in northern Texas as ranchland burned, the Texas Forest Service said.

Wildfires fed by dry, windy conditions have charred more than 82,000 acres over seven days across the state, killing livestock, destroying buildings and drawing in crews and equipment from 25 states.

"Predicted fire weather for tomorrow is even worse," Forest Service spokesman Alan Craft said. "These are the worst conditions we have ever seen."

The state forest service has helped fight 92 fires in the past week.

Plants that thrived in wet weather last year have dried to tinder under a drought covering all of Texas, and weeks of high winds and little moisture have made every spark dangerous.

Sparks thrown by pipe cutting in Stonewall County lit a sprawling fire in rugged terrain, Craft said.

The blaze moved 12 miles in less than four hours on Friday, despite 58,000 gallons of fire retardant dumped from helicopters and the efforts of bulldozers and firefighters from as far away as Montana and Washington on the ground.

Almost 170 head of cattle were reported killed and four unoccupied homes were destroyed, Forest Service information officer Mary Kay Hicks said.

Portions of the fire had run out of fuel, helping crews on Saturday before winds began to pick up again, she said.

"They made progress, but the wind is fighting against them."

Temperatures were in the mid-90s, with winds gusting up to 35 miles per hour, said National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Barritt.

Sunday was expected to be worse, with wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour, but Barritt said winds should die down by Monday afternoon after a cold front passes through.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Chris Michaud)

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) – A federal judge on Saturday rejected a plan negotiated between the government and wildlife advocates to remove most wolves in the Northern Rockies from the Endangered Species List.

The deal struck earlier this month between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and 10 conservation groups would have lifted federal protections from an estimated 1,200 wolves in Idaho and Montana, allowing those states to restore licensed hunting of the animals.

A similar plan for removing Endangered Species Act safeguards for wolves in Montana and Idaho, and turning management of the animals over to state game officials, was implemented by the federal government in 2009.

But 14 conservation groups challenged that move in court, and a U.S. district judge in Missoula, Montana, sided with the environmentalists in August of 2010, ordering federal protections of the wolves restored.

The same judge, Donald Molloy, refused Saturday to approve the latest de-listing plan, which 10 of the 14 conservation groups had hammered out with the Obama administration. The four remaining groups opposed the settlement.

They said in legal filings that supporters of the proposed settlement were improperly being driven by a wish to lessen the public conflict over wolves, rather than by science.

Powerful ranching interests in Montana and Idaho opposed reintroduction of wolves to the region some 15 years ago and have continued to resist federal protection of the animals as a threat to livestock. Sportsmen complain that wolves are killing too many big-game animals, such as elk.

But in the decision handed down on Saturday, Molloy said that to reverse his August 2010 decision would be tantamount to sanctioning an illegal action.

Molloy ruled then that the government erred in lifting federal protections for wolves in Idaho and Montana while leaving them intact for wolves in neighboring Wyoming. He agreed with conservationists that the wolves in all three states were part of a single population that could not be treated separately under the Endangered Species Act.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has left Wyoming and its estimated 500 wolves out of its de-listing proposals because that state's management plan would generally have allowed wolves to be shot on sight, as opposed to the licensed-hunting regimens planned by Idaho and Montana.

Despite Molloy's latest ruling, the outcome of wolf protections in the Northern Rockies remained unclear.

Amendments tacked on to budget bills that Congress is expected to vote on next week would accomplish through legislation what the proposed settlement Molloy rejected would have done through the courts, according to a statement posted online by U.S. Sen. John Tester, a Montana Democrat.

If the budget rider is enacted it would be the first time that an animal has been removed from the Endangered Species List by an act of Congress.

In yet another wrinkle, Idaho's Republican governor is considering signing into law a measure that declares the estimated 700 wolves in the state a "disaster emergency." The measure would allow him to marshal state and local law enforcement to kill wolves.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and David Bailey)