Thousands of firefighters battling a wildfire in northern California received some help from the weather Saturday morning, just hours after the blaze exploded in size, sending massive, swirling plumes skyward and scorching an area about the size of Los Angeles. The blaze was one of several fires tearing through the western United States and Canada, fueled by wind and heat.
Cooler temperatures and an increase in humidity on Saturday could help slow the Park Fire, the largest blaze so far this year in California. A man suspected of starting the fire has been arrested, which started in a park on Wednesday afternoon and grew from about 6,400 acres to a staggering 350,000 acres by Saturday, some 546 square miles, and was 10% contained.
Weather conditions are easing up, but that may or may not have an impact on the fires, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
Temperatures are expected to be cooler than average through the middle of next week, but “that doesn’t mean that fires that are existing will go away,” he said.
More than 130 structures have been destroyed so far, and thousands more are threatened as evacuations were ordered in four California counties: Butte, Plumas, Tehama and Shasta.
Trees burn during the Park Fire near Chico, California. Arson investigators in California arrested a man on suspicion of starting the state’s largest wildfire of the year — a conflagration that has prompted evacuations and threatened the state’s power grid.
Benjamin Fanjoy/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Authorities said a man pushed a burning car around 3 p.m. Wednesday in the upper part of Bidwell Park in Chico and then calmly blended in with others fleeing the scene. The car went up into flames completely sparking the larger fire. Officials later identified the suspect as 42-year-old Ronnie Dean Stout II. A local judge issued an arrest warrant and Stout was booked into jail.
“It’s going to be another dynamic day,” Cal Fire incident commander Billy See said at a briefing on Saturday.
He noted that the blaze had been advancing 8 square miles per hour since its inception. However, there was cautious optimism as weather conditions slowed the fire’s advance in some areas, and firefighters were able to plan and deploy additional personnel.
“Today we’ve got almost three times the personnel we had yesterday morning,” he said. “We still don’t have enough.”
He advised his crews to be aggressive and safe and take advantage of what likely are the best conditions they will experience in the coming days.
More than 110 active fires covering 2,800 square miles were burning in the U.S. on Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some were caused by the weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the region endures record heat and bone-dry conditions.
Amanda Brown, who lives in the same community where Stout was arrested, said she was stunned that someone would set a fire in a region where the memories of the devastation in Paradise are still fresh.
“That anyone could deliberately put our community through that again is incredibly cruel. I don’t understand it,” said the 61-year-old Brown, who was about a mile from the fire but had not been ordered to evacuate.
Smoke and flames rise from the forest as crews try to extinguish a wildfire in Chico, California, United States.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images
Elsewhere, fire crews were making progress on another complex of fires burning in the Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada line, said Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman. Traffic was backed up for miles near the border on a portion of the main highway linking Los Angeles and Las Vegas, as crews continued Saturday to battle a fire that started a day before when a truck carrying lithium-ion batteries crashed and turned onto its side.
Evacuee Sherry Alpers, fled with her 12 small dogs and made the decision to stay in her car outside a Red Cross shelter in Chico after learning that animals would not be allowed inside. She ruled out traveling to another shelter after learning the dogs would be kept in cages, since her dogs have always roamed free at her home.
Alpers said she doesn’t know whether the fire spared her home or not, but she said that as long as her dogs are safe, she doesn’t care about the material things. “I’m kind of worried, but not that much,” she said. “If it’s gone, it’s gone.”
(Associated Press) – Multiple communities in Idaho have been evacuated after lightning strikes sparked fast-moving wildfires.
Videos posted to social media include a man fleeing the town of Juliaetta, driving past a building and trees engulfed in flames as a tunnel of smoke rises over the roadway.
As that and other blazes scorch the Pacific Northwest, authorities say California’s largest wildfire is zero-percent contained after destroying 134 structures and threatening 4,200 more.
A sheriff says it was started by a man who pushed a burning car into a gully.
Officials say they have arrested a 42-year-old man who will be arraigned Monday.
When a wildfire started in the mountains of Fresno County late last month, much of California was on the cusp of a heat wave that would go on to smash records both for its intensity and duration. Over the next week and a half, as the Basin fire swelled to more than 14,000 acres and temperatures in the area reached 112 degrees, at least nine firefighters were treated for heat-related illness. Four were taken to local hospitals, three of them airlifted from the fire line.
As the heat wave stretched on, the incident management team overseeing the fire formed a working group to deal with the extreme conditions. They provided firefighters with electrolytes to add to their drinking water and cooling towels to place on their necks.
And on July 5, in what may have been a first in the state, they constructed five generator-powered, air-conditioned yurts — three out on the fire line and two at the incident command post — to be used as emergency cooling stations.
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“I’ve been doing this for over 35 years, and I can tell you that I have never seen this done before,” said Mike Lindbery of the U.S. Forest Service, public information officer on the Basin fire. “The heat has caused this team, which is basically coming in to solve problems, to look at a different aspect of problem solving.”
Much attention has been paid to the ways in which extreme heat ratchets up the risk of wildfire and intensifies its behavior, resulting in longer, more destructive fire seasons. But perhaps just as vexing are the challenges heat poses to the health of firefighters themselves, who already perform backbreaking work saddled with heavy equipment in unforgiving terrain.
On Tuesday, Daniel Foley, 27, a first-year Forest Service firefighter assigned to the Bly Ranger District in Oregon’s Fremont-Winema National Forest, collapsed after completing a fitness test and died at a local hospital. It’s not yet clear whether heat was a factor. The area was under a heat advisory, with afternoon temperatures in the mid-80s to 90s, depending on the elevation, according to the National Weather Service.
“It’s one of the hottest years on record for me so far, that I can remember,” said Mike Noel, assistant director of risk management for the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region. He has been a wildland firefighter for 38 years. “All agencies have had multiple heat-related injuries this year.”
The team overseeing the Basin fire in Fresno County constructed air-conditioned yurts to be used as emergency cooling stations for firefighters earlier this month.
(California Complex Incident Management Team 11)
California has seen an uptick in heat-related illness among firefighters over the last 10 days or so coinciding with the elevated temperatures, he said. Seven firefighters assigned to the Lake fire in Santa Barbara County were treated for such illnesses on Thursday alone, he said.
At least four firefighters suffered from heat-related illness while fighting the Thompson fire in Butte County on July 2, and at least one on the Sharp fire in Ventura County on July 3, according to public information officers for those fires.
“This is extreme heat throughout the West, and it’s possible whole crews are being affected,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, former wildland firefighter and executive director of nonprofit Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology.
Wildland firefighters wear about 50 pounds of personal protective equipment, including a helmet, safety goggles and a personal pack containing water and equipment, said David Acuna, battalion chief of communication for the southern region of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
They may also carry a 25-pound hose pack, as well as hand tools like chain saws or nozzles. And they often must hike to remote locations and then perform physical labor once they get there, which can include digging fire lines, putting in hose lays and taking vegetation down to bare mineral soil to stop the fire spread — all as they breathe in smoke, dust and debris.
“It’s claustrophobic, sometimes, because it seems like you can’t escape from the heat and smoke,” Acuna said.
Cal Fire firefighters typically work 24-hour shifts, followed by 24 hours off in order to rest and refuel, he said. During those 24 hours on, breaks can be elusive. “If we can catch a quick cat nap in the engine, that’s great, but most of the time we stay engaged,” he said.
Breaks were once openly frowned upon — “it’s that tough, macho culture,” said Riva Duncan, former wildland firefighter and vice president of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, an advocacy group made up of retired and current federal firefighters.
But for many, a wake-up call came in 2011, when Bureau of Land Management firefighter Caleb Hamm, 23, died from exertional heatstroke on a fire in Texas, becoming just the second reported federal wildland firefighter to do so. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report with recommendations for better protecting firefighters was widely distributed.
The incident raised awareness among superintendents, crew leaders and engine captains about early indicators of heat illness, and encouraged firefighters to speak up when they’re not feeling well, Duncan said. Many crews now have EMTs who carry extra electrolytes and cooling blankets and are trained to spot the early warning signs of heat illness, which can include cramps, weakness, nausea and fatigue, she said.
Firefighters walk along a hillside with scorched ground behind them in Mariposa, Calif., on July 5.
(Noah Berger / Associated Press)
Still, climate change has resulted in an ever-shifting baseline for what conditions firefighters can expect, including more intense, longer-lasting heat waves.
“We’re not even at the halfway mark in July,” Duncan said. “These extreme heat situations started early.”
“People need to understand that fires are behaving differently than they used to,” she added. “It’s not easy to put them out because they’re burning under different conditions than 10, 15 years ago.”
In California, as of Friday, 3,630 wildfires had burned 228,756 acres, compared with a five-year average of 3,743 fires and 111,813 acres over the same time frame, Acuna said.
“The fires are much, much more aggressive,” he said, attributing this to the heat and dryness, as well as the abundance of grasses and other fuels, which were stoked by two wet winters and left largely untouched by two mild fire seasons.
Members of the Redding Hotshots, an elite crew of Forest Service firefighters, are used to dealing with sweltering summer heat. But this season has been punishing even by their standards. They recently fought fires in both the Tahoe and Modoc national forests, where temperatures were in the 100s.
“It’s always hot on fires, but it seems like this year so far has definitely been about dealing with temperatures over 100, if not more,” said hotshot superintendent Dan Mallia.
Forest Service fire crews typically work up to 16-hour shifts, followed by eight hours of rest that are often spent sleeping outside. Although Mallia said breaks can be hard to come by, depending on how a fire is behaving, he says he encourages his members to hydrate, eat well and find shade when they can.
He noted that crews acclimate to the heat by training in it, but that it’s difficult to fully prepare for such extreme conditions.
“At the end of the day when you get out on a fire, it’s a little different,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff going on as far as the work, the stress, the smoke, the heat, the fire — all that stuff definitely ramps up.”
Complicating matters, wildland firefighters are often sent to work in unfamiliar areas, which can make them feel the effects of extreme heat more acutely, said Max Alonzo, national business representative for the National Federation of Federal Employees and a former wildland firefighter who worked for the Forest Service for most of his career.
“I have seen people really struggle when they show up to different climates and different topography that they’re not used to, where they’re not used to the elevation, they’re not used to the weather,” he said. “We’re a national resource, so they’re going to go all over the country.”
He said that agencies could do more to proactively protect firefighters from the heat, including erecting cooldown areas on fire lines. Although he applauded the use of cooling yurts on the Basin fire, he said it’s not normal practice. Normal would be, “Hey, make sure you tell people to stay hydrated,” he said.
More could also be done to alternate crews — pulling firefighters off the line and letting them cool down before moving them back in, he said.
Cal Fire has already made changes to its personal protective equipment in response to rising temperatures, including transitioning to single-layer pants and removing colored ink from wildland jackets and undershirts in response to evidence that it increased the heat levels of the firefighters wearing them.
Federal agencies and many state and municipal departments have also begun to use drones to scout ahead of a fire or ignite backfires, lessening the burden on firefighters who would otherwise have to hike in on foot.
And wildland firefighters in hotter climates sometimes work bimodal shifts — toiling in the morning hours, then pulling back during the heat of the day and getting back out as things cool down in the evening, Mallia said.
Still, some say more changes may be necessary as the planet continues to warm. That could include sending more firefighters to an incident so they can distribute the workload more evenly, or placing more emphasis on nighttime operations.
The conditions also illustrate the increasing prudence of managing some backcountry fires for ecological benefit, treating them more like controlled burns rather than trying to immediately suppress them, Duncan said. That benefits the environment, and it protects the physical health of firefighters by permitting them to focus on fires threatening people or structures, she said. The idea remains politically unpopular, she noted.
It will also be increasingly key to set more controlled fires in the spring and fall to reduce the amount of fuel on the ground come summer, Ingalsbee said.
“Big picture, we’re going to have to be proactively managing fire during the cooler period of the year, rather than attacking all fires at the hottest period of the year, when we fail, and we surpass human physical ability for working in these kinds of conditions,” he said.
One thing appears certain: These conditions are unlikely to improve.
“I got a desperate call this morning from one of our members just like, ‘When is this going to end?’ ” he said Wednesday. “The heat is not ending. We’re just going to have to adapt to the new normal, whatever that is.”
A wildfire that broke out near Oroville last week amid California’s record-breaking heat wave destroyed 13 homes and more than a dozen other buildings, state fire officials said.
The Thompson fire arrived Friday in lockstep with a heat wave that parked itself over the West, setting the stage for the fire to sustain itself on brush and vegetation in extreme heat and dry winds in Butte County. Over the weekend, it grew to 3,789 acres before it was declared 100% contained on Monday by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
“The word that our fire chief has been using to describe the fire is stubborn,” Cal Fire spokesperson Rick Carhart said. “The fire broke out on a day that was extremely hot, quite windy and the humidity was almost nothing.”
The fire was fanned by 20 mph north winds and burned through steep terrain, putting a strain on firefighters battling the flames.
Thirteen single-family homes were destroyed, five homes were damaged, and 13 other buildings were also destroyed, according to Cal Fire. Two firefighters have been injured, Carhart said. There have been no reports of civilian injuries.
Though the Thompson fire is contained, the lingering heat wave sets the stage for more dry conditions with extreme heat that could drive more fast-moving wildfires and stretch firefighting resources thin. Temperatures on Tuesday continued to linger 10-15 degrees above average across huge swaths of the state and show no signs of letting up until the weekend.
“That prolonged heat really makes a big difference that stresses the vegetation and especially the firefighters,” meteorologist Alex Tardy with the National Weather Service in San Diego said.
Among the other fires in the state, the Vista fire in the San Bernardino National Forest is burning through steep terrain near Mt. Baldy and Wrightwood, the U.S. Forest Service said.
The fire nearly doubled in size overnight and has burned 1,095 acres since it started Sunday afternoon in steep, remote terrain. Details on the fire’s containment were not immediately available.
Temperatures around the fire near Mt. Baldy, which is around 7,000 feet in elevation, will reach up to the 90s on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Firefighters can also expect to see noticeable wind gusts, but they should follow a predictable pattern, rising in the day and dropping at night, Tardy said.
The area is flush with vegetation now in the heat after a strong rainy season.
“That area near Lytle Creek is the wettest part of the mountain with a lot of vegetation,” Tardy said. “That means a lot of fuels are already in place.”
The severity and persistence of this heat wave is unprecedented, according to meteorologists, setting several records for high temperatures across the Golden State and the Western United States.
Lancaster and Palmdale continued to stretch their all-time record of consecutive days at or above 110 degrees, reaching five days on Monday, according to the National Weather Service. The prior record for both Antelope Valley cities was three days.
Las Vegas is expected to break its all-time record for consecutive days at 110 degrees or above, hitting five days in a row Monday. The current record is 10 days in a row, but forecasts show temperatures will remain that high through next week, easily toppling the previous record.
Several other areas, including Madera and Needles, also hit daily their record highs on Monday, according to the National Weather Service. Palmdale reached 112 degrees on Monday, recording above normal temperature for the fourth day in a row.
Madera hit 110 degrees, beating a record by three degrees; Merced hit 109 degrees, inching past its daily record from 1921; Las Vegas hit 115 degrees, one degree above its prior July 8 record set in 2021; and Needles, in the Mojave Desert, hit 123 degrees, breaking its July 8 record from 2017 by three degrees.
In Santa Barbara County, a wildfire forced residents near Figueroa Mountain to leave their homes as authorities issued evacuation orders Monday.
The Lake fire continues to burn on the western edge of the Los Padres National Forest amid record low levels of moisture, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The fire was first reported Friday afternoon northeast of the city of Los Olivos and has burned 26,176 acres since then to become the biggest fire in California so far this year, officials said.
The fire is burning near Zaca Lake and several residential properties including the Sycamore Valley Ranch, formerly Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. Firefighters reported 12% containment as of Tuesday morning.
An evacuation is in effect for parts of Figueroa Mountain, south of Tunnel House at Sisquoc River, east of Figueroa Creek, north of the southern end of Cachuma Mountain, and west of Los Padres National Forest areas, officials announced on Monday. Though most of the fire’s growth overnight occurred in isolated pockets of forest, it pushed evacuation warnings Tuesday to the edge of communities in Los Olivos and Santa Ynez and triggered expanded evacuation orders to Goat Rock, east of Figueroa Creek, north of the U.S. Forest Service entrance at Happy Canyon Road and south of Cachuma Mountain.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for the area Tuesday afternoon because of high winds and extreme heat.
“It’s hot, dry and stronger winds are in effect today,” said fire behavior analyst trainee Dan Michael with the Interagency Incident Management team responding to the fire.
Even at night when fire activity usually dies down, the Lake fire has remained active because it’s burning on top of mountain ridges where it can be 30 degrees warmer or more than lower elevations, Michael said.
“The marine layer comes in and it’s not able to reach where the fire is burning,” Michael said. “The conditions are much worse at night.”
Los Angeles Times staff reporter Grace Toohey contributed to this story.
LIVERMORE — Fire crews stopped the forward progress of a wildfire Monday that burned near a regional park, according to fire officials.
The blaze broke out about 11: 15 a.m. in the 5300 block of Arroyo Road and near Del Valle Road in Del Valle Regional Park southwest of the Alameda County Lake, according to spokesperson Cheryl Hurd of Alameda County Fire.
The blaze burned about 20 acres, Hurd said.
Alameda County Fire crews were at the scene, along with those from the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department and Cal Fire. Crews were expected to be at the scene well into the afternoon to monitor hot spots and get the blaze extinguished.
Investigators were working to determine the cause.
When wildfires rage in areas that can’t be accessed by road, smokejumpers are called in. These teams parachute in to dangerous areas to fight the blazes. Itay Hod takes a look at how they do it.
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A wildfire in the mountains above Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley has exploded to more than 16,000 acres, prompting evacuations near vineyards and Neverland Ranch.
The Lake fire was sparked near Zaca Lake on Friday afternoon just before 4 p.m. and quickly spread through dry grass, brush and timber, officials said. The fire was zero percent contained on Sunday.
The Sheriff’s Department expanded the evacuation area Saturday night along Figueroa Mountain Road near Neverland Ranch, once owned by the pop star Michael Jackson. More ground crews were dispatched to the area.
“Our goal is to keep [the fire] away from all those structures,” said Kenichi Haskett, the public information officer assigned to the firefighting operation. “It’s going to continue to grow.”
The fire was burning in the mountains above Foxen Canyon Road, where there are more than a dozen vineyards. Several wineries north of Los Olivos were closed Sunday after fire officials cut off access to the road.
But there was no need to evacuate, said Ashley Parker, co-owner of Fess Parker Winery.
Though she could see the glow at night north of the winery, the wind appeared to be taking the fire farther north, away from populated areas, Parker said.
The threat level was low enough that the youngsters were simply entertained by the fire helicopters sucking water from the vineyard reservoir, she said.
“My nieces and their husbands live on the ranch,” Parker said. “All the kids were getting a real thrill out of it. Those helicopter pilots are really amazing. So lucky to have great fire crews.”
The fire was fueled by low humidity and hot inland temperatures. When the fire started, a red flag warning was in place because of gusty winds. The wind has now calmed down, but temperatures remain high.
“With less wind, they can get aircraft in there to drop retardant,” said Joe Sirard, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “But it’s life threatening heat for these firefighters.”
He said the humidity was still in single digits in some areas of the fire, especially in the highest elevations. The cause of the fire is unknown.
Amid scorching temperatures, crews continued to battle several wildfires in inland areas across California. The largest is the Basin fire in Fresno County, which started June 26. The fire, which has burned 14,027 acres, was 60% contained on Sunday.
Crews also gained the upper hand on the French fire, which began on the Fourth of July and briefly threatened the town of Mariposa outside Yosemite National Park. The 908-acre fire, which temporarily triggered mandatory evacuations and closed State Route 140 leading into the park, stands at 60% containment.
The weather service has issued an excessive-heat warning until 9 p.m. on Wednesday for inland valleys from Cuyama in San Luis Obispo County down to the Antelope Valley in Los Angeles County. Forecasters say the highs along this stretch of inland California are expected to range from 106 to 116 degrees.
The relentless heat shattered records in some parts of the state on Saturday. Palmdale tied its all-time record of 115 degrees. Death Valley set a new record for July 6 with a high of 128 degrees.
On Saturday, a cooling trend prompted the weather service to call off excessive-heat advisories and warnings in many of the coastal areas.
In Los Olivos, vineyard managers said they were optimistic the fire would soon be contained. Parker said she expected her winery to reopen Monday.
“I really do believe the firefighters knocked it back and that area is going to be up to speed in a day,” she said. “The last thing I want to do is encourage people not to come. The town of Los Olivos is in good shape. Businesses are open. People are having a good time.”
Adrian De La Cruz, who works at Petros Winery closer to town, said customers were being seated indoors because of the air quality.
“The smoke is getting really bad today,” he said. “Yesterday it was raining ash.”
He said one fire patrol officer stopped by, but he did not have time to talk to him.
Temperatures are expected to soar along the U.S. West Coast on Friday and Saturday, the National Weather Service said, warning that “dangerous heat” will likely spread up the West Coast as it intensifies.
Forecasters said temperatures will be 15-30 degrees above average for much of the West Coast Friday, and “numerous record-breaking temperatures can be expected through the next few days,” the weather service said.
Heat watches and warnings are in place across multiple states, including large swaths of California, as well as parts of Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and Washington.
In parts of California and southern Oregon, temperatures could blast into the triple digits, the weather service said. California is expected to experience some of the worst effects of the heat wave on Saturday, forecasters said, with temperatures likely to reach into the 110s.
“Locally higher temperatures into the 120s are possible in the typical hot spots of the Desert Southwest,” the National Weather Service said.
In Los Angeles, the National Weather Service issued a “Red Flag Warning” in effect until late Friday night due to “hot, dry and windy conditions.” The warning signifies increased risk of fire danger. The weather service warned residents to use caution with open flames as the dry conditions could fuel the spread of fire.
The heat wave coincides with the Thompson wildfire, which engulfed Butte Country in Northern California this week and forced thousands to flee their homes. Evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings on Thursday.
Over the weekend, the excessive heat and humidity will shift east to the mid-Atlantic and the Southeast, with temperatures expected to break into the high 90s and low 100s.
The National Weather Service encouraged people to stay vigilant, noting that heat impacts can compound over time and pose a threat to health and safety. The above-average temperatures can be expected to last into next week, forecasters said.
“It is imperative to stay hydrated, out of direct sunlight, and in buildings with sufficient air-conditioning when possible,” said the weather service. “It is also equally as important to check on the safety of vulnerable friends, family, and neighbors.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said earlier this week that the state was taking steps to ensure the most vulnerable Californians had access to resources, including cooling centers.
IPSWICH — The Fire Department extinguished a brush fire near a home on Wednesday and no injuries were reported, officials said.
About 4:41 p.m., the Fire Department was called to the area of 19 James Road, near Dix Road and the Ipswich Country Club, for a report of a brush fire, Fire Chief Paul Parisi reported in a news release.
Engine 4, under the command of Lt. Gus McInnis, was the first company to arrive and found an estimated 75-foot-by-75-foot section of brush burning about 100 yards from a home.
An additional engine was called. Mutual aid firefighters from Rowley responded, while firefighters from Essex and Topsfield covered Ipswich stations. Off-duty and call members of the Ipswich Fire Department responded as well.
Through a spokesman, Parisi said the fire was under control within an hour. First responders cleared the scene in less than two hours.
The cause of the brush fire is under investigation and it would be unusual for such a fire to spontaneously ignite, he said.
While the brush fire was being extinguished, Ipswich Police and Action EMS responded to a motor vehicle crash in the area of 80 Linebrook Road, and to medical calls on County Road and Water Street.
“The three-tiered response system we operate under here in Ipswich with police, fire and EMS, as well as our mutual aid partners, were critical in handling these simultaneous emergencies today,” Parisi said in the release. “We thank our partners for helping us when we needed them.”
Contra Costa Fire officials were able to knock down a grass fire that started late Thursday evening after the fire forced evacuations for residents on Lotus St., authorities said.
The Contra Costa Fire PIO X social media account first posted about the fire at 10:13 p.m. on the 2700 block of Hillcrest Ave. in Antioch.
Additional crews were called in to help with structure protection before fire officials began evacuations on Lotus Street at around 10:30 p.m., according to a post on X.
Luckily, crews were able to stop forward progress of the fire and knock it down by shortly after 11 p.m.
Crews will be staying on the premises to make sure the fire doesn’t reignite overnight. There was no word from officials when the evacuation order might be lifted.
The incident was one of five different brush fires that crews responded to in Contra Costa. Several were in Antioch, along with an additional incidents in Bay Point and Martinez. All of the fires were contained without any reports of injury. Authorities did not confirm the cause of any of the fires.
On scene of a grass fire in Martinez. Forward progress stopped. Suspected fireworks. Three acres. pic.twitter.com/wDwfAo6rEv
Dave Pehling is website managing editor for CBS Bay Area. He started his journalism career doing freelance writing about music in the late 1990s, eventually working as a web writer, editor and producer for KTVU.com in 2003. He began his role with CBS Bay Area in 2015.
A vegetation fire by Interstate Highway 580 east of Corral Hollow Road near Tracy in San Joaquin County had reached 35 acres as of noon Thursday, according to Cal Fire.
Cal Fire said units were dispatched to the area at approximately 11:20 a.m. for what is being dubbed the Hollow Fire, which quickly spread to 35 acres.
As noon, there was no information about containment.
Homes along Middle Creek Canyon Road are still under mandatory evacuation orders, and homes on Vine Mesa, Cascade Avenue, Pine Avenue and Beulah Highlands Road are on pre-evacuation, fire officials said Wednesday.
Fire crews are working to construct fire lines along the fire’s edge as well as away from the fire’s edge and are mainly focusing on protecting structures, according to the update. Firefighters are focusing on the eastern edge to keep the fire from advancing toward Beulah.
The National Forest Service closed the Pike-San Isabel National Forests west of Beulah until July 26 because of the fire, from Forest Road 386 to the north to Colorado 78 to the south and Colorado 165 to the west.
Closed trails include South Creek, Second Mace, Second Mace Spur, Silver Circle, Left Hand, Squirrel Creek, Mountain Park, Coupler, Dome Rock and Middle Creek, according to the agency.
Davenport Campground, Second Mace/Squirrel Creek Trailhead, Mingus Cabin and Squirrel Creek Interpretive Site are also closed.
(FOX40.COM) — An evacuation order is in effect for areas of Butte County amid a wildfire, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office.
Around 8:30 p.m. on Monday, BCSO issued an evacuation order for the Apache Fire on the south side of Grubbs Road between Crossa Country Road and Alta Arosa Drive in zones 884 and 885. Shortly after, evacuation orders were also issued for all of zone 884, 865, 866, 868, and 869. For information about zone locations click or tap here.
An evacuation warning was also issued for Crossa Counry Road, She Yo Lane, and Tessaro Lane in Zone 884 in Palermo. Zones 868 and 883 are included in the evacuation warning.
Firefighters across California are working to extinguish blazes that broke out over the weekend and continued to grow on Monday, as the state contends with a mix of hot, dry weather and powerful, gusty winds. The Post Fire, burning near Gorman, northwest of Los Angeles, spread to more than 14,600 acres, while the Point Fire, in Sonoma, covered 1,190 acres.
Officials have released a series of wildfire maps plotting their expansion. Eleven active wildfires of at least 10 acres or more were burning in California early Monday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire.
The agency registered 1,769 wildfires in total, which had burned more than 41,900 acres and destroyed at least six structures. No deaths have been reported in connection with the wildfires.
Firefighters were battling multiple wildfires across California over the weekend that continued to spread on Monday, June 17, 2024.
CalFire
Northwesterly winds of 10 or 15 miles per hour — and gustin up to 55 mph around some of the worst wildfires — overlapped with an overall dip in humidity over parts of California that together created the arid and blustery conditions that allow fires to rapidly spread, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center warned in a fire weather outlook Monday morning. Meteorologists forecast elevated fire weather concerns for the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, the western Transverse Ranges and the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range — areas of concern that collectively encompass a massive chunk of California.
A red flag warning was in effect Monday for a large section of the state, covering hundreds of square miles from the Sacramento Valley in Northern California down to Santa Barbara County and Antelope Valley in the south near Los Angeles.
In this National Weather Service map, areas under a red flag warning are marked in pink.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / National Weather Service
The National Weather Service issues red flag warnings when the combined presence of warm temperatures, low humidity and strong winds fuel an elevated risk of fire danger. Their advisory was set to remain in place for most of the warning area through at least 8 a.m. PT on Tuesday.
Another map from CalFire shows smoke and haze conditions forecast for much of California and portions of other Western states, stretching across southern Nevada and large expanses of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.
This map from CalFire on June 17, 2024, shows areas affected by a smoke and haze warning colored in yellow and orange.
CalFire
Post Fire
Of the 11 largest active wildfires reported Monday by Cal Fire, the Post Fire was the most massive by far. It erupted as a brushfire on Saturday and prompted evacuations in Gorman, a rural community in northwestern Los Angeles County. By Monday morning, officials said the Post Fire had enveloped more than 14,000 acres of land in both L.A. County and neighboring Ventura, as it swept over the grassland hills of Hungry Valley State Park and moved in a southeastern direction toward Lake Pyramid.
Crews have so far managed to contain 8% of the blaze, Cal Fire said. More than 1,100 personnel from 34 different crews had been assigned to respond to it, along with 14 water tankers, 11 bulldozers, seven helicopters and hundreds of additional vehicles. Air tankers dispatched from around California were flying over the area to drop fire retardant as conditions allowed, according to Cal Fire, but the extent of the blaze was limiting visibility overhead.
The Post Fire in Los Angeles County was the largest active wildfire reported in California on June 17, 2024.
Cal Fire
“Crews are working to establish perimeter fire lines around the fire’s edges,” wrote Cal Fire in its latest status update. “Firefighters will continue working overnight to reinforce the existing perimeter on the fire’s east side, as wind is expected to push the fire further south towards Pyramid Lake.”
The agency noted that 1,200 people had been evacuated from Hungry Valley Park due to the wildfire and Pyramid Lake was closed as the flames headed closer to it. Cal Fire reiterated warnings from the national Weather Service of oncoming winds even more powerful than those already recorded in the region, with forecasters anticipating gusts of up to 20 mph on Monday afternoon that could potentially reach 50 mph around mountain ridges.
Craig Little, of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told CBS Los Angeles that the wind “has been a major factor” in the fire’s rapid spread “along with the terrain,” which is already dry.
“That’s all a recipe for a very quickly moving flame,” he said.
Fire crews battle a hot spot at the Post Fire in northern Los Angeles County on Sunday, June 16, 2024 in Gorman, California.
Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Firefighters said some buildings in the area around the Post Fire were threatened Monday and two had sustained damage, but none were destroyed, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Point Fire
The Point Fire, burning through the wine country area of Sonoma, north of San Francisco, was 20% contained on Monday morning, according to Cal Fire. At the time, the blaze had spread over 1,190 acres of land extending southeast from the bottom of Lake Sonoma. Twelve crews including 400 firefighting personnel were responding to the fire on Monday, with 10 water tankers and four helicopters as well as air tankers conducting fire suppression as visibility permitted.
A view of flames from the Point Fire burning in Healdsburg, in Sonoma County, California, on Sunday, June 16, 2024.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images
Better weather conditions allowed crews to build and strengthen wildfire control lines around the perimeter of the blaze, Cal Fire said. But the agency warned that conditions on Monday could potentially allow the fire to continue to spread. By 11 a.m. PT, the Point Fire had expanded almost 100 acres since Cal Fire’s previous update a few hours before.
Firefighters had contained 20% of the Point Fire, burning in Northern California’s wine country, on Monday, June 17.
Cal Fire
Hundreds of people were evacuated as the Point Fire grew quickly on Sunday, while another 4,000 residents in the area were placed under an evacuation warning, CBS San Francisco reported, citing the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. An evacuation center was established at a high school in Forestville, about 15 miles from Sonoma, according to the station.
At least one firefighter has been injured while battling the Point Fire, Cal Fire said in an incident update issued at around 6 a.m. local time Monday. The update did not give details about the nature of the injury or the circumstances surrounding it.
Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
Firefighters are battling a series of wildfires that broke out across California over the weekend amid early summer heat and dry, gusty winds.
The National Weather Service warned that winds that carry “the potential for rapid fire spread” were forecast across large swaths of the state Monday morning, including the Antelope Valley and foothills, Santa Barbara County and Northern California’s wine country and Sacramento Valley.
The largest fire in the state Monday morning was the Post fire in Los Angeles County, which has burned 14,625 acres and was 8% contained, Cal Fire said. More than 1,100 firefighters and half a dozen helicopters are battling the flames.
The fire, along the 5 Freeway near Gorman, triggered evacuations for 1,200 people in the Hungry Valley Park and Pyramid Lake areas.
The fire burned an auto repair shop, damaged another building and threatened other structures to the south and west of the I-5, authorities said. Los Angeles County Fire Department crews rapidly responded, making aerial assaults with air tankers and water-dropping helicopters.
The Ventura County Fire Department and U.S. Forest Service were aiding in the effort. At one point Sunday, about 400 firefighters and 70 engines were at the scene, according to Cal Fire.
At the same time, areas from Redding down to Modesto are under a Red Flag warning until Tuesday morning due to a combination of summer heat, gusty winds, low humidity and unusually warm overnight temperatures.
In the North Bay hills, areas hit by some of the state’s worst wildfires in recent memory, including Mt. St. Helena and Lake Berryessa, are under red flag warnings until Monday night.
In Sonoma County, the Point fire has burned more than 1,000 acres and several structures south of Lake Sonoma. It was 15% contained Monday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fire started Sunday afternoon.
A smaller fire in Lancaster, meanwhile, burned 300 acres and several outbuildings after starting before 4 p.m. Sunday.
In Hesperia, more than 1,100 acres burned, prompting area road closures and an evacuation warning for the nearby Arrowhead Equestrian Estates. The fire began Saturday before 7 p.m.
On Monday morning, a vegetation fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills just south of Runyon Canyon, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. Not far from homes and hidden in a difficult-to-access area, it took firefighters and a water-dropping helicopter more than an hour to put out the flames, despite it burning an only about 400 square feet, the department said in an alert.
(FOX40.COM) — A wildfire in Northern California has prompted immediate evacuation orders, according to Cal Fire.
At around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Cal Fire reported that a fire was spreading near Four Junes Way and Palermo Honcut Highway, south of Palermo in Butte County. As of 5:25 p.m., the fire has burned through 750 acres and at least two structures.
Four firefighters were hospitalized with injuries while fighting a vegetation fire burning in the Napa County community of St. Helena Wednesday afternoon.
The Crystal Fire began burning around 1:40 p.m. near the 200 block of Crystal Springs Road and the Silverado Trail North, near the Reverie Vineyard and Winery, and the wind pushed it up the hill and over the ridge.
The fire did get close to some homes, but crews were able to save every single one of them. Only one outbuilding was damaged. At the winery, one building was surrounded by charred land and smoke. It had two important features, fire-resistant construction and defensible space.
“The structures that were in the area had their defensible space,” said Asst. Chief Mike Wink from Cal Fire’s Lake Napa Unit. “So, we talk about ready for wildfire all the time and making sure that you do what you can do to help us. That works out today.”
Around 9:40 p.m., fire officials said the Crystal Fire was at 65% containment and that it had burned 60 acres. Cal Fire also reported that five of its firefighters were evaluated for injuries. Four of them were taken to the hospital, while one remained at the scene to recover after on-site treatment.
The fire agency said the injuries were “related to response in the steep, rocky terrain and hot summer conditions.” The four firefighters are expected to make full recoveries.
#CrystalFire UPDATE: The fire is 65% contained and remains at approximately 60 acres. Overnight we will have 20 fire engines, 1 crew & 4 water tenders assigned to continue strengthening containment lines. CAL FIRE Law Enforcement was on scene and is investigating the cause. pic.twitter.com/j8W0fuofac
Cal Fire said it would keep 20 fire engines, one crew and four water tenders at the fire overnight to strengthen containment lines.
Although the area saw warm temperatures, 30% humidity and low 5 mph winds helped fire crews in the containment effort. It was a familiar scene for residents in the area: air tankers dropping fire retardant, helicopters dousing water on the fire and firefighters climbing up the rocky hillside to fight the flames.
The Crystal Fire started almost in the same area as the Glass Fire in 2020.
Assistant Chief Wink said since the fire was in the Glass Fire burn scar, there wasn’t a lot of heavy brush. Although the region experienced two sizable fires just in the last week, this fire season is not expected to be severe.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued an air quality advisory because of the smoke from the Crystal Fire, saying that localized smoke impacts are possible near Angwin and could impact the Napa Valley from St. Helena to Calistoga.
This is a breaking news update. More information to be added as available.
FAMILIES TO GO HOME ON SUNDAY EVENING, LAURA TOASTY CAME HOME. WE FEEL VERY BLESSED. FOR WHAT YOU KNOW, WHAT WE HAVE. SHE EVACUATED WITH HER FAMILY AND THEIR ANIMALS SATURDAY AS THE CORRAL FIRE CAME DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO HER. BERNARD DRIVE HOME THE CALL GOT OUT TO MY AG FRIENDS AND FAMILY. I DIDN’T HAVE TO MAKE PHONE CALLS. THEY WERE ALL HERE WITH TRAILERS AND TRUCKS READY TO GET OUR LIVESTOCK. CAL FIRE SAYS AS OF SUNDAY, THE CORRAL FIRE HAD BURNED THOUSANDS OF ACRES IN SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY. WE HAD SUCH STRONG WINDS AND THIS GRASS FIRE WAS ABLE TO SPREAD TO MORE THAN 14,000 ACRES, ESSENTIALLY IN A DAY, THE SCORCHED LAND VISIB AS CREWS CONTINUE TO WORK TOWARDS FULL CONTAINMENT, OFFICIALS WERE ABLE TO DOWNGRADE THE EVACUATION ORDERS TO WARNINGS. THE SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE AND THE OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES HERE IN SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY DID AN OUTSTANDING JOB GETTING THE WORD OUT QUICKLY AND EVACUATING PEOPLE EARLY. UNFORTUNATELY, ONE HOUSE WAS LOST. REFLECTING BACK, TOASTY SAYS CONDITIONS ON SATURDAY MADE EVACUATING CHALLENGING. WE FINALLY GOT TO THE POINT WHERE THE FIRE TRUCKS HAD PUT ENOUGH OF THE FLAME OUT THAT WE WERE TRYING TO GET THROUGH, AND THE FLAME WAS ACTUALLY LAPPING UP ON THE SIDE OF THE TRAILERS AND ON THE SIDE OF MY CAR. AND, UM, THE FIREMEN TOLD ME JUST TO FOLLOW HIM THROUGH. HE TOOK THREE STEPS AND HE DISAPPEARED. WE DIDN’T SEE HIM, SO THEY REARRANGED THE TRUCKS SO WE COULD SEE THE LIGHTS AT THE TOP OF THE TRUCK TO DRIVE OUT. A DAY LATER, SHE IS HOME AND SO GRATEFUL TO BE. CANNOT SAY ENOUGH ABOUT THE FIREFIGHTERS AND YOU KNOW, ALL THE THE PUBLIC PEOPLE THAT WERE IN HERE HELPING. EVERYBODY’S PUTTING THEIR LIFE ON HOLD FOR FOR US TO SAVE US. SO WE’RE HOME. AND SHE WAS SO RELIEVED TO BE HOME. FIRE CREWS ARE GOING TO BE OUT HERE OVERNIGHT WORKING TO STRENGTHEN THEIR CONTROL LINES, PATROLLING, LOOKING FOR ANY SMOKE THAT MIGHT POP UP AND MOPPING UP IN SAN JOAQ
’30 years of memories and possessions, all gone’: Corral fire victims lose San Joaquin County home
Updated: 11:32 PM PDT Jun 2, 2024
Black, burned hillsides circle the San Joaquin County neighborhood caught in the Corral Fire.Kirn Gill got his family to safety and then returned home to protect his house, as well as his neighbors’ property. “We couldn’t leave, no one could come in,” Gill said. “It’s been wild. The fires were insane, with 200-foot flames, and smoke everywhere. I couldn’t breathe.”Gill, who is using a crutch and recovering from foot surgery, said he turned on his sprinklers and grabbed a garden hose, watching the fire burn his neighbors’ home, jumping Bernard Road and heading his way. | MORE | Corral Fire: Evacuation orders downgraded, LiveCopter 3 shows conditions in San Joaquin County”The embers jumped over to the juniper trees and lit those up. I had my garden hose going and all the embers that were flying up over to my property, I was putting them out with a garden hose,” Gill said. He kept his home safe, but he watched the flames engulf his neighbor’s home. The Curtiss family has lived there for 30 years. The owners are 75 and 84 years old.They evacuated with two dogs and a pet turtle. “They had about 10-to-15 minutes from the time the officer knocked on the door to tell them to get out of the house and grabbed the dogs, the turtle and a little bit of clothes and left,” said Travis Curtiss, their son. “As you can see, the house is completely destroyed.”CalFire crews were still on the scene Sunday evening, watching for hot spots and burned trees to fall. “It was a very sad thing to see everything burning up, yards burning up, and unfortunately, our neighbor right there lost their whole entire house,” said Curtiss.
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, Calif. —
Black, burned hillsides circle the San Joaquin County neighborhood caught in the Corral Fire.
Kirn Gill got his family to safety and then returned home to protect his house, as well as his neighbors’ property.
“We couldn’t leave, no one could come in,” Gill said. “It’s been wild. The fires were insane, with 200-foot flames, and smoke everywhere. I couldn’t breathe.”
Gill, who is using a crutch and recovering from foot surgery, said he turned on his sprinklers and grabbed a garden hose, watching the fire burn his neighbors’ home, jumping Bernard Road and heading his way.
“The embers jumped over to the juniper trees and lit those up. I had my garden hose going and all the embers that were flying up over to my property, I was putting them out with a garden hose,” Gill said.
He kept his home safe, but he watched the flames engulf his neighbor’s home. The Curtiss family has lived there for 30 years. The owners are 75 and 84 years old.
They evacuated with two dogs and a pet turtle.
“They had about 10-to-15 minutes from the time the officer knocked on the door to tell them to get out of the house and grabbed the dogs, the turtle and a little bit of clothes and left,” said Travis Curtiss, their son. “As you can see, the house is completely destroyed.”
CalFire crews were still on the scene Sunday evening, watching for hot spots and burned trees to fall.
“It was a very sad thing to see everything burning up, yards burning up, and unfortunately, our neighbor right there lost their whole entire house,” said Curtiss.
