While California has suffered through five years of drought, the fires now have plenty of dry tinder to feed on in the 100-degree heat today.
The Fish Fire and the Reservoir Fire broke out on Monday, and both of them quickly grew in size, fanned by gusting winds and the extreme heat. Both fires doubled in size overnight and are both uncontained at this time. The Fish Fire has grown to 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) while the Reservoir Fire, which was sparked by a car crash, is now about 2,400 acres (971 hectares), according to figures from the U.S. Forest Service. The cause of the Fish Fire is still under investigation.
The two fires are burning about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Around 700 families have been forced to evacuate so far, said Andrew Mitchell, a spokesman for the team battling the Reservoir Fire, in a phone interview with the Huffington Post. Two of the communities nearest to the flames include the suburban towns of Duarte and Azusa.
The two blazes are now being handled as one event, called the San Gabriel Complex Fire, and there are now over 600 firefighters involved in fighting this huge fire. In the meantime, there are about a half-dozen wildfires still raging across the state.
Marine layer will bring cooling west of the mtns, with hot weather continuing in the mtns and deserts. #heatwave pic.twitter.com/0g45wc7HR7
— NWS San Diego (@NWSSanDiego) June 21, 2016
Matt Guilhem of member station KVCR told NPR.org, “The brush in the Angeles National Forest, where the fires are blazing, is “practically tinder” after years of drought.” He added that sea-breeze gusts of 15-18 mph have been helping the fire to spread while triple-digit temperatures across Southern California, as well as much of the rest of the Southwest, are just making matters worse.
The Sherpa fire that has been burning for a week near Santa Barbara is now about 70 percent contained after burning over 8,000 acres or more than 12 square miles. Most of the mandatory evacuations for the Sherpa fire should be lifted by Wednesday morning, and all by Saturday. About 270 homes and other structures were threatened by the blaze.
Another large wildfire causing a lot of problems for firefighters is blazing away near the Mexican border near a small desert town called Potrero. This fire dubbed the Border Fire, has already burned 7,500 acres and is only 5.0 percent contained. About 75 families have been evacuated from this small ranching community.
#BorderFire [update] Potrero (San Diego Co) now 7,500 acres & 5% contained. pic.twitter.com/6TxVofk7n4
— CAL FIRE (@CAL_FIRE) June 21, 2016
Arizona and New Mexico fires
A 42 square mile wildfire on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona has prompted the evacuation of nearly 300 people. Because of the sparse vegetation, the fire has been slow-moving.
“In central New Mexico, a 28-square-mile fire that erupted last week and destroyed 24 homes in the Manzano Mountains south of Albuquerque is still largely uncontained,” the AP reports, according to NPR.org. “Higher humidity overnight allowed crews to strengthen lines around the fire.”
As far as temperatures go, Fox News is saying it’s a never-ending list of hot, scorching, triple-digit numbers across much of the southwestern U.S. In Los Angeles, the mercury reached 107 degrees, with the National Weather Service report listing: Las Vegas: 113 degrees. In Boulder City, Nev.: 114. In Yuma, Ariz.: 117 degrees, and along the Colorado River in Nevada, it got to 120 degrees.
