Crews in both states fought to contain the blazes, with firefighters making headway in the Golden State while authorities counted at least 16 homes burned in the Northwest.
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Hearst Castle, the palatial ocean-view estate built by the late newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst and a major stop on summer road trips, remained closed because of proximity to the fire.
A firefighting helicopter gets water out of Isabella Lake near Wofford Heights, Calif., before making another water drop on the several day old Cedar Fire in the mountains, north west of here, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. That fire has forced Hearst Castle to close.
At 17,000 acres on Saturday afternoon with 35% containment, the fire was within 2 miles of Hearst Castle.
The fire grew to more than six square miles on Monday morning, and some residents of the rural area were ordered to evacuate immediately.
Once the morning inversion layer dissipates, winds will increase out of the south to southwest at 10 miles per hour with wind gusts around 20 miles per hour, according to Cal Fire.
A major wildfire is threatening nearly 2,000 structures in central California’s San Luis Obispo County. It’s 60 percent contained. It was, however, a threat to vegetation in watersheds important to supplies on the south coast of Santa Barbara County.
The blaze has charred mostly remote forest between West Yellowstone, Montana, a border town just outside the park’s western boundary, and the Madison Junction recreational area within the park.
He said the fire is within a mile of the community of Alta Sierra in Kern County.
The fire, raging in the dry brush of the Columbia River Basin, was threatening homes and crops, but had not burned any homes, the State Patrol said.
Thunderstorms were a concern as well Monday, not for rain, but due to potential for lightning and gusty winds.
And while firefighters in Southern California work around the clock to control the flames, scientists hundreds of miles away are waging a different sort of battle – the one to fully understand how these blazes spread.
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Officials are still estimating they’ll have the fire fully contained by August 29, but the steep terrain and timber, chaparral and grass stressed by drought are challenging firefighters’ ability to control the lines, the spokesman said.
