The burn scar had grown to 44,300 acres – larger than the city of San Francisco – and was visible from space as heavy smoke billowed from the mountainous landscape of California’s picturesque Central Coast.
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The blaze – one of the state’s largest and most destructive this year – has destroyed 57 homes.
A fire that has charred more than 93 square miles in the Virginia Mountains near Pyramid Lake was about 68 per cent contained. The fire jumped SR 17, burned parallel to County Road 10-NE and jumped Road 10.
No new injuries were reported among the more than 1,100 firefighters working to contain the two fires, and neither fire was threatening structures.
The fire threat has prompted the closure of several popular California campgrounds and recreation areas along the northern end of the Big Sur coastline, including Point Lobos State Natural Reserve and Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.
Crews overnight got a bit more control over a stubborn wildfire in California’s Central Valley. More than a dozen homes were destroyed in Montana, and thousands of firefighters were battling other blazes Tuesday in OR and Wyoming. Dubbed the Cold fire, that fire was listed as just 5 percent contained.
Federal officials mobilized two U.S. Department of Defense retardant-dropping aircraft to help fight wildfires in the West.
The National Interagency Fire Center’s monthly outlook, released Monday, says the potential for big fires will remain above normal during August in parts of California, Idaho, Nevada and Utah because of dry grass and bushes.
At least 14 homes were destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire in the Bitterroot National Forest in western Montana, authorities said Monday.
The fire has scorched more than 79 square miles and is less than 30 percent contained.
About 800 firefighters were battling a series of fires that had threatened a tribal town and hamlets near Pyramid Lake, north of Reno.
It has since charred about 817 hectares and is threatening 400 structures, prompting evacuations in the area, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
On the outskirts of Los Angeles, crews had almost surrounded a 65-square-mile blaze that killed one man and destroyed 18 homes.
Officials issued an evacuation order for Canyon Creek Resort, an RV, cabin and tent camping site, said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant. The fire began July 11.
The only area still evacuated was Granite Creek in Teton County, where a wildfire was burning in Bridger-Teton National Forest. Residents of about 75 homes that had been evacuated last week were allowed to return.
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Fire officials said West Rim Drive could be intermittently closed over the next couple of days.
