In California, around 2,000 people had to flee their homes in the Santa Clarita Valley in the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains north of Los Angeles on Saturday because of a fast-moving wildfire, called the Sage Fire.
The fire broke out in the Stevenson Ranch area shortly after noon and quickly became a raging inferno of 1.25 square miles in just hours the Los Angeles County Fire Department said, according to Fox News.
As winds gusted up to 25 mph, about 1,200 firefighters, aided by water-dropping aircraft focused on creating a perimeter around the fire, hoping to protect the many homes in the area. Aerial photos show the fire reaching the property line of one home that was covered in fire-retardant.
“We are having to battle with Mother Nature,” fire Capt. Roland Sprewell told the Los Angeles Times. “The winds are blowing and the terrain is challenging. The firefighters are in dense, heavy brush, and after a five-year drought, all this vegetation is prime and ready to burn.”
Inspector Gustavo Medina of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said the Sage Fire is now 20 percent contained and everyone who was evacuated has been allowed to return to their homes.
The hot, dry weather could see the fire grow on Sunday. Temperatures are expected to be in the 90s with 20 percent humidity and wind gusts of up to 30 mph at high altitudes, said Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
There have been rumors circulating that a car crashed and tumbled over the side of a road, causing the fire, but the Los Angeles Fire Department says the cause of the fire has not been determined as of today.
Nederland, Colorado wildfire
Colorado’s Cold Spring Fire was sparked on Saturday afternoon and it too quickly grew to 270 acres by Saturday evening as over 100 firefighters battled the blaze in hot, dry and windy conditions. The Boulder Office of Emergency Management issued mandatory evacuation orders in the Nederland area and put another 170 homes on alert to be ready to leave at a moments notice.
On Sunday, the Denver Post is reporting that the fire has grown to over 330 acres and more residents of the area around the Cold Springs fire could be evacuated today. As of Sunday, the fire is still at “zero” containment.
Photos by @IndianPeaksJoe show how hard firefighters are working on #ColdSpringsFire. That's the same house pic.twitter.com/rirfxjvXre
— Mitchell Byars (@mitchellbyars) July 10, 2016
The pre-evacuation notices sent around to residents south of the mandatory evacuation zone include people living on Sugarloaf Road, Lost Angel Road, Owl Creek Road, Old Townsite Road, Labelle Road, South Peak Road and Sugarloaf Mountain Road, according to the Boulder Daily Camera.
At a briefing for residents of the Nederland area this morning at a local school, they were told the forecast is calling for high temperatures, high winds, and low humidity, creating a “scary situation” for firefighters. About 1,000 people have been evacuated so far, and additional evacuations are possible.
“Our objective is to not let this grow anymore and pound the crap out of it,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said, after being told by a firefighter at the meeting that the situation looked “bleak.”
Red flag alert issued for western states
The National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings and fire weather watches in parts of many states from the High Plains of South Dakota westward through the Rockies to Southern California.
The alert was issued because gusty winds are impacting a large part of the region, brought on by a rather potent southward dip in the jet stream moving across the Northwest. The red flag alert will extend into Monday for parts of Arizona and New Mexico to Colorado, Wyoming and the High Plains of South Dakota and Nebraska.
