State firefighters and the U.S. Forest Service already have fought more than 1,800 wildfires since January 1, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
Advertisement
The forecast for the weekend in Southern California puts firefighters on high alert as it is expected to reach triple-digit temperatures until Monday and will heighten the risk for fires.
Firefighters are trying to contain a growing wildfire in coastal Southern California and a larger blaze in rural New Mexico as hot weather and wind feed flames.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued a smoke advisory today for Los Angeles and Orange counties in response to the 4,000-acre Sherpa Fire in Santa Barbara County.
Authorities in east-central Arizona’s White Mountains are sending mixed messages on whether visitors should avoid the area because of a wildfire threatening several communities.
Smoke from the massive Santa Barbara County Sherpa fire is invading the Valley area and all the way down into Orange County, prompting health officials to warn residents of the danger. In all, they have placed at least 270 homes and businesses under evacuation orders and cleared out campgrounds and state beaches, she said. Authorities don’t have a containment estimate yet for a wildfire burning in the Manzano Mountains southeast of Albuquerque but say good weather helped firefighters attack the fire overnight.
CBS Los Angeles reports flames marched from the mountains down to the freeway.
Some firefighters have told of a flame vortex – described as looking like a “fire tornado” – jumping across freeways and spreading the blaze rapidly. In New Mexico’s Bernalillo and Torrance counties, fires have burned 16,000 acres and destroyed dozens of structures, officials said. The latest size estimate Friday morning is almost three times the previous acreage, with just 5 percent containment.
The so-called Dog Head Fire has burned more than 16,000 acres (6,475 hectares) of timber and logging zones in three days and forced hundreds of people to evacuate, officials said.
The fire broke out Wednesday 12 miles south of Show Low.
Much of the fire is burning in terrain too rugged for safe work on the ground, so crews have concentrated on clearing firelines along a highway, roads and a power line, said Rick Miller, the fire team’s operations section chief. Gusty winds pushed it into brush and ponderosa pine.
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.
Advertisement
In this image made from video, a wildfire burns in a remote coastal area west of Santa Barbara, Calif., on Thursday.
