PLACERVILLE, California. – Crews dug and burned lines of fire amid another round of strong winds that on Saturday contributed to the fury of gunpowder in northern California.
“We have a shootout ahead and today’s wind will make it very difficult,” said Keith Wade, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
The Caldor fire in the northern Sierra Nevada has already destroyed dozens of homes and authorities closed a 74-mile stretch of Interstate 50 on Friday, the main route between the capital of Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, in the state of Nevada. line.
The highway was closed after debris fell on the roadway and due to red flag warnings for winds of 20 to 30 mph (32 to 48 km / h) that on Saturday evening “combined with extremely dry fuels The meteorological conditions of the fires in the vicinity of the Caldor fire will continue to be critical, “the National Meteorological Service said.
Winds could gust up to 40 mph (65 km / h) on Saturday.
The road is a key checkpoint as crews fight the fire, which erupted earlier this week and grew to ten times its size in a few days, fueled by winds.
“We’re going to invest as much as we can to keep the fire south” of the road, said Eric Schwab, head of Cal Fire’s operations section.
Firefighters advanced on the west side of the fire and burned vegetation to stop it from fueling food and prevent the flames from spreading to the evacuated community of Pollock Pines. On the northeast side, crews were protecting the cabins in the dense forest area, fire officials said.
The Caldor fire had devoured 310 square kilometers on Saturday and more than 1,500 firefighters were fighting it amid heavy wood and rough terrain.
The fire was one of dozens of major California wildfires that burned northern California and incinerated at least 700 homes alone in the Greenville and Grizzly Flats communities of the Sierra Nevada.
The fires, mostly in the northern part of the state, have burned about 1.5 million acres, or 6,000 square kilometers (2,300 square miles), and sent smoke to the east coast. They were burning grass, bushes and forests that are exceptionally dry for two years of drought probably aggravated by climate change.
Thousands of homes remained threatened in communities hidden in picturesque forests and tens of thousands of people remain under evacuation orders.
Nine national forests in the region have been closed due to the threat of fire.
Northwest of the Heat Fire, the massive Dixie Fire spread and new evacuations were ordered, including the small village of Taylorsville. In five weeks, the fire about 282 miles northeast of San Francisco has become the second-largest in state history and blackened an area twice the size of Los Angeles.
Weather forecasts call for a storm system that brings winds but little rain through northern California early next week. With it the risks of fires will increase. Dozens have exploded in recent days but have been quickly wiped out.
An exception was the cache fire, a small but rapid movement of grass that ravaged at least 56 homes and virtually annihilated a fleet of mobile homes.
Some of those who had to flee the flames had to leave their pets behind.
Emily Crum, an animal control officer at North Bay Animal Services, was taken by surprise as she searched for abandoned pets in the Clearlake area.
He saw a black dog on charred ground.
“I saw her lying there. I thought she was dead, ”Crum said. “Then he started moving his tail.”
Despite being chained to a boat trailer, the mutt named Sammy had not been injured, Crum said.
Cats, goats and chickens were also rescued.
California is one of dozens of mostly western states where 99 major active fires have been burning since Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The fires have intensified throughout the West, creating a season almost all year that has burned firefighters. Fire patterns used to migrate in seasons from the southwest to the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest and then to California, allowing fire crews to move from one place to another, Anthony said. Scardina, adjacent regional forest forest of the United States Forest Service.
“But the problem is that all of these seasons are starting to overlap,” Scardina said.