A second night of strong winds fueled a wildfire Friday morning that forced a freeway closure and evacuations in Santa Barbara County.
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The fire, which stretches across 4,000 acres, is 5% contained and has more than 1,200 emergency workers devoting to stopping it, according to the county.
Extremely hot and dry weather was forecast to continue into the weekend, although gusty winds should ease, fire officials said.
Authorities say firefighters contending with 100-foot flames have made progress in keeping a New Mexico blaze that destroyed two-dozen homes from moving farther north toward rural, mountain communities.
Navajo County spokesman Adam Wolfe said during a briefing Friday that people should postpone or cancel their plans to visit the area because pre-evacuation advisories remain effect.
The blaze burned down to USA 101 overnight, forcing closure of one of California’s major north-south highways from 8:30 p.m. Thursday until it was reopened shortly before dawn Friday. It also blanketed Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, in a thick haze. About 400 mandatory evacuation calls have been placed, he said, though it was hard to know exactly how many people actually left because of the rough terrain and scattered housing in the area.
A fire crew takes shelter behind an engine as the Sherpa Fire advances at El Capitan State Beach in Santa Barbara, California on June 16, 2016.
“We do not want our residents to have a false sense of security”, he said.
In Arizona, a blaze called the Cedar Fire has burned about 9,600 acres in the eastern section of the state but growth appears to have slowed because of good work by firefighters and lighter-than-expected winds, fire officials said Friday at a news conference. Wind driven flames from the Sherpa Fire pushed down canyon and near the freeway. In this photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, a firefighter knocks down flames as they approach a ranch near the Las Flores Canyon area west of Goleta, Calif., in the ear.
A wildfire west of Santa Barbara is still burning out of control in coastal canyons above the Pacific Ocean.
Meanwhile, in Santa Barbara, about 800 firefighters struggled to reach the narrow, brush-choked coastal canyons to attack the flames.
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The Sherpa fire grew from 2 to 6 square miles overnight Friday June 17, 2016 in Santa Barbara County.
