At the Cal Fire staging area in Santa Margarita, two crews from the California Army National Guard arrived to help with clean up and free up firefighters to concentrate on the more active areas of the fire.
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Other Cal Fire officials talked about the challenges firefighters are facing: drought, falling trees, and resources stretched thin as fires erupt across the state. One of the largest blazes, the Route Complex, has burned 29,000 acres in Trinity County, east southeast of Eureka.
“Fatigue and complacency are now concerns, because many firefighters have been on the job for 30 plus days”, said Cpt.
Still, fully containing the Jerusalem Fire will be hugely important to residents.
The group of lightning-caused fires has scorched about 70 square miles of mainly forest lands and was 15 percent contained.
The fire on the Cuesta Grade has been linked to two other fires in the region, and all three were believed to be started by the same vehicle.
The gas water heater was in an outbuilding that contained flammable liquids, and the fire then spread to nearby brush and the surrounding area, Cal Fire said.
“People need to be aware of the fire conditions”, Murphy said, “And they need to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice”. More than 1 million acres have burned this summer in the West, and barring an unlooked-for end to the drought, the fire season will surely last through October or longer.
“Fabulous, they’re great, they’ve done an awesome job”, added local resident Karen Watton, “I look out and I see all of the burning that is happening and I just wanted to say thank you to the folks that took care of us, because it was pretty scary Monday night”. According to a county fire chief and a forest supervisor, the evacuation order for Santa Margarita was lifted because the fire was staying in the containment lines.
Most of Kern County woke up to the smell of smoke in the air.
His crew followed another line that had been closer to the flames near Santa Margarita.
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Fire managers at the center are able to enlist military help when there are not enough civilian firefighting teams, thanks to a 1975 agreement between the Defense, Interior and Agriculture departments.
