At least 4 dead as wildfires explode in size, displacing thousands of Californians
By
Adriana Navarro, AccuWeather staff writer
Published Aug 18, 2020 8:37 PM EDT
Multiple homes were destroyed as the LNU Lightning Complex Fire burned out of control in Solano County, California, on Aug. 19.
At least four people are dead as the 300-plus wildfires continue burning across California. The largest blaze in the state tripled in size Wednesday night into Thursday as hundreds of structures were destroyed. Several injuries have also been reported.
On Thursday, Cal Fire confirmed that an employee from electric company PG&E was found unresponsive in his vehicle before being pronounced deceased at the hospital. That fatality came a day after a helicopter crash claimed the life of a pilot in western Fresno County. A third fatality was confirmed Thursday evening by Sheriff Tom Ferrara of the Solano County Sheriff's Office over a Facebook live video. The body of a man was discovered along Pleasants Valley Road by crews assessing the damage from the LNU Lightning Complex near Vacaville,
A "historic lightning siege" triggered more than 367 new fires, Jeremy Rahn, a spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire), said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon.
"The size and complexity at which the incidents are burning is challenging all aspects of emergency response," Rahn said. "It is critical that the community heeds the warnings of law enforcement and remain prepared to evacuate at a moment's notice."
A satellite loop shows lightning igniting fires, seen as points of orange that emerge after lightning strikes, across California. (NOAA / CIRA)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency on Tuesday due to the wildfires, the ongoing heatwave and high speed winds.
“We are deploying every resource available to keep communities safe as California battles fires across the state during these extreme conditions,” Newsom said in a press release. “California and its federal and local partners are working in lockstep to meet the challenge and remain vigilant in the face of continued dangerous weather conditions.”
The fires have also added another layer of concern over fighting the coronavirus. California currently has the most confirmed cases out of other U.S. states at over 640,000, and at least 11,530 people in the state have died from the virus, according to data from John Hopkins University. The state has had an increase of average number of cases per day over the past week compared to the average from two weeks earlier, according to The New York Times.
"The overlap of the COVID-19 pandemic with wildfire season in the United State complicates public health response to wildfire smoke," the Department of Agriculture said. "People who are either susceptible to or affected by COVID-19 may have health conditions that also make them vulnerable to wildfire smoke exposure."
The smoke from the fires are traveling far enough to reportedly cause colorful sunsets in Texas, however the reaching smoke will not impact air quality.
The CZU August Lightning Complex was first reported on Monday, and by Thursday evening it had spread to 48,000 acres across Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties and is 0% contained.
CalFire had reported multiple large lightning-caused fires burning in southern San Mateo County and northern Santa Cruz County on Thursday, and several areas have been evacuated or are under warning. Over 22,000 people have already been evacuated from communities across the two counties.
The University of California Santa Cruz enacted voluntary on-campus evacuations on Thursday afternoon for students and staff for those living on campus. On Thursday evening, those evacuations became mandatory.
For a list of areas under evacuation from the CZU Lightning Complex, click here.
Lightning-caused fires from the LNU Lightning Complex had scorched 215,000 acres by Thursday evening, more than four times larger than the 46,225 acres reported Wednesday night. The fire is raging across Napa and Sonoma counties in Northern California. The incident was first reported on Monday, and Cal Fire noted that the complex had extreme fire behavior with short and long range spotting continuing to challenge firefighting efforts.
AccuWeather Reporter Bill Wadell captured footage of multiple destroyed homes near Vacaville, California.
A home burned to the ground near Vacaville, Calif. on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020. (AccuWeather Reporter Bill Wadell)
(AccuWeather Reporter Bill Wadell)
"My family has been in this valley for over 100 years. So it's a little difficult to see that some of your friends homes burning and knowing that its coming down the ridge, you know some of the family homes may not be there," Cindy Pace, a resident in nearby Fairfield, told Waddell. "A little sad that some of your old friends that are 92 years old, old farmers, wont leave their homes."
The complex is currently 0% contained with the largest fire in the complex -- the Hennessey Fire after merging with the Gamble, Green, Markley, Spanish and Morgan fires-- having consumed 105,000 acres by Thursday afternoon.
Bill Nichols, 84, works to save his home as the LNU Lightning Complex fires tear through Vacaville, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020. Nicols has lived in the home for 77 years. Fire crews across the region scrambled to contain dozens of wildfires sparked by lightning strikes as a statewide heat wave continues. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
(AP Photo/Noah Berger)
During the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Vacaville Police Department ordered an evacuation of the western edge of Vacaville, a city of 100,000 residents between San Francisco and Sacramento. The Hennessey Fire was approaching in the dead of night.
Many residents had gone to bed with the inferno blazing seemingly miles away, according to CBS San Francisco. But strong winds kicked up the flames during the night, driving police and firefighters to run from door-to-door and wake residents up to evacuate immediately.
"I got all my children out, but then I panicked a little bit. It took me a little while to get out," Diane Bustos, who had been one of the people to escape the flames, told KPIX5. She spoke to the news station in a singed nightgown. "My husband was driving the car and it burned. He got burned and had to leave the car and it blow up. So I was walking down by myself and I got all these flames on me. I lost my shoes. But I made it, God saved me."
Through Tuesday night into the early hours of Wednesday, reports flooded social media of people trapped by the flames. CalFire reported 50 structures destroyed, 50 structures damaged and four civilian injuries from the complex.
Near Pleasants Valley Road and Pleasant Hills Ranch Way, U.S. Navy veteran and photojournalist Matthew Henderson live-streamed the fire over Facebook as he walked through a burning neighborhood. Several homes were shown to be consumed by the flames.
Five crews were sent out on Thursday to assess the damage near Vacaville, and authorities estimate about 30,000 residents are still evacuated from the area.
Flames consume a cabin at the Nichelini Family Winery in unincorporated Napa County as the Hennessey Fire burns on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. A winery family member said they had spent 10 hours Monday rebuilding the cabin's foundation. Fire crews across the region scrambled to contain dozens of blazes sparked by lightning strikes as a statewide heat wave continues. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Evacuation orders were lifted for the remainder of Vacaville on Thursday evening with the exception of the areas south of Foothill Drive and west of Alamo Drive from Monte Vista Avenue to I-80, Vacaville Police announced in a tweet.
The fires spared the majority of the Nichelini Family Winery, Napa Valley's oldest family-owned winery. Built in 1890, the winery has since withstood the Great Depression, Prohibition, droughts -- and now a wildfire. Although at least one of the cabins of the winery had gone up in flames and some of the other outbuildings were damaged, images on social media showed the winery remained.
For a list of areas under evacuation from the LNU Lightning Complex, click here.
A series of lightning-caused fires known as the SCU Lightning Complex ignited Sunday in Northern California and had engulfed 35,000 acres by Tuesday evening. By Thursday evening, the flames had spread across a total of 157,475 acres, and was only 5% contained, according to a report from CalFire. The complex is made up of about 20 separate fires separated into three zones -- the Canyon Zone, which stretches across Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, the Calaveras Zone, which covers Alameda, Santa Clara and into Stanislaus County and the Deer Zone in Contra Costa County.
Smoke from the California wildfires spread over much of the state and into Nevada and Idaho on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020. (NOAA/GOES-West)
In the complex that has spread across five counties, four have areas under evacuation orders: Alameda, Stanislaus, Santa Clara and San Joaquin counties.
Two people have been injured from this fire, according to Cal Fire.
"The wind will be gusty each afternoon and evening through the end of the week," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist David Samuhel said, though adding the winds would probably be a bit lighter than they had been on Wednesday. However, the relative humidity will stay low.
AccuWeather meteorologists are currently monitoring the possibility of remnants from Hurricane Genevieve bringing dry thunderstorms to the area Sunday night and Monday, which could lead to a repeat of lighting-caused infernos.
"Temperatures will be in the 90s for highs each day," Samuhel said.
For a list of areas under evacuation from the SCU Lightning Complex, click here.
The Moc Fire near Highway 49 and Highway 120 near Moccasin, California, is one of the most recent fires to ignite in the state. First reported on Thursday, Aug. 20, the fire had burned 600 acres and was 0% contained.
The Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office issued mandatory evacuations late Thursday afternoon from Highway 120 at Moccasin through Big Oak Flat to Merrell Road in Groveland. The evacuation area includes Priest Coulterville Road.
Having burned 33,974 acres of Monterey County near Pine Canyon and River Road, east of Salinas, since its start on Sunday, the River Fire is only 9% contained and continues to actively burn in all directions as of Thursday afternoon.
The fire has injured four people, both fire personnel and civilians, according to CalFire. Two structures were reported to have been damaged and another six destroyed by the blaze.
For a list of areas under evacuation from the River Fire, click here.
The Apple Fire burns behind mountains near Beaumont, Calif., Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
(AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
The Apple Fire, a human-caused fire that has been burning since July 31 and has scorched over 33,400 acres, was at 95% containment as of Tuesday afternoon.
Crews are currently monitoring for mudflows and flash floods, according to InciWeb, with the fire burning away vegetation that would otherwise hold soil in place, as the charred ground may not absorb rainwater.
The Lake Fire, at over 27,000 acres, is 52% contained. Mandatory evacuations in the area remain in place as the blaze, burning in the Angeles National Forest, creeps towards 100-year-old trees, including Big Cone Douglas Fir, Oak and Gray pine, according to InciWeb.
The cause of the Lake Fire is unknown, and as of Wednesday, there has been only one injury reported. Six structures were reported to have been damaged by the blaze as well as 21 structures destroyed. The InciWeb report noted that crews are watching for fire whirls, or fire devils, which is a spinning vortex column of rising hot air and gases from a fire.
Image of the Lake Fire on Aug. 17, 2020. The fire had burned over 21,000 acres as of Aug. 18. (Twitter/@kathrynbarger)
The Hills Fire, which started to burn on Saturday, Aug. 15, is burning near Avenal, California and has scorched 1,900 acres. The combination of steep terrain and extreme heat is making it difficult for firefighting crews, but they have managed to reach 45% containment, as of Thursday evening.
On Wednesday morning, a helicopter that was being used in firefighting operations crashed near New Coalinga Municipal Airport. The crash sparked a new fire, according to ABC30. The cause of the crash is still unknown.
“This morning a Call When Needed (CWN) helicopter crashed while fighting a wildfire in western Fresno County. The Bell UH-1H helicopter was on a water dropping mission on the Hills Fire, approximately 9 miles south of the City of Coalinga,” CalFire said in a press release on Wednesday afternoon. “The pilot was the only person aboard the helicopter and did not survive the incident.”
The Loyalton Fire ignited on Friday, Aug. 14, around 4:30 p.m. PDT to the northeast of Loyalton, California. The blaze made headlines on Saturday, Aug. 15, after the National Weather Service's office in Reno, Nevada, issued a rare tornado warning as the flames clashed with intense winds. The office noted "extremely dangerous fire behavior" and "rotating columns and potential for fire whirls" in one tweet. The winds had reached speeds of up to 60 mph, just below EF0 tornado strength.
"The Loyalton Fire to the east of the Sierra Valley exploded most impressively this afternoon, with a very large pyrocumulus and reports of fire tornadoes," the NWS warning said. "Due to the possibility of very strong fire-generated winds and extreme fire behavior with danger to fire personnel, a tornado warning was issued to heighten awareness in the area of the fire."
A fire tornado formed on Aug. 15 when flames from the Loyalton Fire clashed with intense winds. (Twitter/@v3katelynn)
As of Thursday evening the fire had scorched an estimated 46,617 acres and was 60% contained. Although mandatory evacuation orders remained in place for Balls Canyon Road and Long Valley Road, all evacuation orders were lifted for the areas of Sierra Brooks and Copperfield. Highway 49, Highway 395 and Highway 70 have all reopened, and evacuation orders in Lassen County have been lifted.
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The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
In the Mojave National Preserve south of Las Vegas, the Dome Fire had grown to 43,000 acres as of Wednesday, Aug. 19, and was 5% contained. On Sunday, the fire was reportedly more than 5,000 acres in size. However, despite its explosion of growth, Samuhel noted that the Loyalton and Grizzly fires were more of a threat to residents, as they were closer to homes.
By Thursday evening, containment had reached 93%, the blaze at 43,273 acres.
Again, the winds will work against firefighters this week during the afternoons and evenings as they battling this blaze.
"Wind gusts of 20 to 30 mph are likely each afternoon and evening for the next several days," Samuhel said.
Grizzly Creek and Pine Gulch fires
The Grizzly Creek Fire, which ignited one mile east of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, on the afternoon of Aug. 10, has burnt 29,732 acres and was at 11% containment as of Thursday evening.
Downwind, the massive Pine Gulch Fire north of Grand Junction, Colorado, exploded to 122,550 acres by Thursday evening, becoming the state's second-largest wildfire in Colorado history, according to the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center. The fire is just 17% contained.
The Hayman Fire from 2002 was the largest wildfire in the state's history at 137,760 acres, according to the Denver Post.
While the cause of the Grizzly Fire is unknown, InciWeb reports lightning caused the Pine Gulch Fire.
Firefighters worked at night to contain the Pine Gulch Fire in Colorado. (InciWeb)
(InciWeb)
"It will be hot with high temperatures [from] 95 to 100 each of the next few days. There will be 10- to 20-mph winds during the afternoon and evening," Samuhel said. "Isolated thunderstorms cannot be ruled out any afternoon and will produce locally strong winds and perhaps dry lightning."
Samuhel added the storms may not deliver a significant amount of rain.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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News / Weather News
At least 4 dead as wildfires explode in size, displacing thousands of Californians
By Adriana Navarro, AccuWeather staff writer
Published Aug 18, 2020 8:37 PM EDT
Multiple homes were destroyed as the LNU Lightning Complex Fire burned out of control in Solano County, California, on Aug. 19.
At least four people are dead as the 300-plus wildfires continue burning across California. The largest blaze in the state tripled in size Wednesday night into Thursday as hundreds of structures were destroyed. Several injuries have also been reported.
On Thursday, Cal Fire confirmed that an employee from electric company PG&E was found unresponsive in his vehicle before being pronounced deceased at the hospital. That fatality came a day after a helicopter crash claimed the life of a pilot in western Fresno County. A third fatality was confirmed Thursday evening by Sheriff Tom Ferrara of the Solano County Sheriff's Office over a Facebook live video. The body of a man was discovered along Pleasants Valley Road by crews assessing the damage from the LNU Lightning Complex near Vacaville,
A "historic lightning siege" triggered more than 367 new fires, Jeremy Rahn, a spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire), said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon.
"The size and complexity at which the incidents are burning is challenging all aspects of emergency response," Rahn said. "It is critical that the community heeds the warnings of law enforcement and remain prepared to evacuate at a moment's notice."
A satellite loop shows lightning igniting fires, seen as points of orange that emerge after lightning strikes, across California. (NOAA / CIRA)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency on Tuesday due to the wildfires, the ongoing heatwave and high speed winds.
“We are deploying every resource available to keep communities safe as California battles fires across the state during these extreme conditions,” Newsom said in a press release. “California and its federal and local partners are working in lockstep to meet the challenge and remain vigilant in the face of continued dangerous weather conditions.”
The fires have also added another layer of concern over fighting the coronavirus. California currently has the most confirmed cases out of other U.S. states at over 640,000, and at least 11,530 people in the state have died from the virus, according to data from John Hopkins University. The state has had an increase of average number of cases per day over the past week compared to the average from two weeks earlier, according to The New York Times.
"The overlap of the COVID-19 pandemic with wildfire season in the United State complicates public health response to wildfire smoke," the Department of Agriculture said. "People who are either susceptible to or affected by COVID-19 may have health conditions that also make them vulnerable to wildfire smoke exposure."
The smoke from the fires are traveling far enough to reportedly cause colorful sunsets in Texas, however the reaching smoke will not impact air quality.
CZU August Lightning Complex
The CZU August Lightning Complex was first reported on Monday, and by Thursday evening it had spread to 48,000 acres across Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties and is 0% contained.
CalFire had reported multiple large lightning-caused fires burning in southern San Mateo County and northern Santa Cruz County on Thursday, and several areas have been evacuated or are under warning. Over 22,000 people have already been evacuated from communities across the two counties.
The University of California Santa Cruz enacted voluntary on-campus evacuations on Thursday afternoon for students and staff for those living on campus. On Thursday evening, those evacuations became mandatory.
For a list of areas under evacuation from the CZU Lightning Complex, click here.
LNU Lightning Complex
Lightning-caused fires from the LNU Lightning Complex had scorched 215,000 acres by Thursday evening, more than four times larger than the 46,225 acres reported Wednesday night. The fire is raging across Napa and Sonoma counties in Northern California. The incident was first reported on Monday, and Cal Fire noted that the complex had extreme fire behavior with short and long range spotting continuing to challenge firefighting efforts.
AccuWeather Reporter Bill Wadell captured footage of multiple destroyed homes near Vacaville, California.
A home burned to the ground near Vacaville, Calif. on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020. (AccuWeather Reporter Bill Wadell)
"My family has been in this valley for over 100 years. So it's a little difficult to see that some of your friends homes burning and knowing that its coming down the ridge, you know some of the family homes may not be there," Cindy Pace, a resident in nearby Fairfield, told Waddell. "A little sad that some of your old friends that are 92 years old, old farmers, wont leave their homes."
The complex is currently 0% contained with the largest fire in the complex -- the Hennessey Fire after merging with the Gamble, Green, Markley, Spanish and Morgan fires-- having consumed 105,000 acres by Thursday afternoon.
Bill Nichols, 84, works to save his home as the LNU Lightning Complex fires tear through Vacaville, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020. Nicols has lived in the home for 77 years. Fire crews across the region scrambled to contain dozens of wildfires sparked by lightning strikes as a statewide heat wave continues. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
During the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Vacaville Police Department ordered an evacuation of the western edge of Vacaville, a city of 100,000 residents between San Francisco and Sacramento. The Hennessey Fire was approaching in the dead of night.
Many residents had gone to bed with the inferno blazing seemingly miles away, according to CBS San Francisco. But strong winds kicked up the flames during the night, driving police and firefighters to run from door-to-door and wake residents up to evacuate immediately.
"I got all my children out, but then I panicked a little bit. It took me a little while to get out," Diane Bustos, who had been one of the people to escape the flames, told KPIX5. She spoke to the news station in a singed nightgown. "My husband was driving the car and it burned. He got burned and had to leave the car and it blow up. So I was walking down by myself and I got all these flames on me. I lost my shoes. But I made it, God saved me."
Through Tuesday night into the early hours of Wednesday, reports flooded social media of people trapped by the flames. CalFire reported 50 structures destroyed, 50 structures damaged and four civilian injuries from the complex.
Near Pleasants Valley Road and Pleasant Hills Ranch Way, U.S. Navy veteran and photojournalist Matthew Henderson live-streamed the fire over Facebook as he walked through a burning neighborhood. Several homes were shown to be consumed by the flames.
Five crews were sent out on Thursday to assess the damage near Vacaville, and authorities estimate about 30,000 residents are still evacuated from the area.
Flames consume a cabin at the Nichelini Family Winery in unincorporated Napa County as the Hennessey Fire burns on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. A winery family member said they had spent 10 hours Monday rebuilding the cabin's foundation. Fire crews across the region scrambled to contain dozens of blazes sparked by lightning strikes as a statewide heat wave continues. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Evacuation orders were lifted for the remainder of Vacaville on Thursday evening with the exception of the areas south of Foothill Drive and west of Alamo Drive from Monte Vista Avenue to I-80, Vacaville Police announced in a tweet.
The fires spared the majority of the Nichelini Family Winery, Napa Valley's oldest family-owned winery. Built in 1890, the winery has since withstood the Great Depression, Prohibition, droughts -- and now a wildfire. Although at least one of the cabins of the winery had gone up in flames and some of the other outbuildings were damaged, images on social media showed the winery remained.
For a list of areas under evacuation from the LNU Lightning Complex, click here.
SCU Lightning Complex
A series of lightning-caused fires known as the SCU Lightning Complex ignited Sunday in Northern California and had engulfed 35,000 acres by Tuesday evening. By Thursday evening, the flames had spread across a total of 157,475 acres, and was only 5% contained, according to a report from CalFire. The complex is made up of about 20 separate fires separated into three zones -- the Canyon Zone, which stretches across Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, the Calaveras Zone, which covers Alameda, Santa Clara and into Stanislaus County and the Deer Zone in Contra Costa County.
Smoke from the California wildfires spread over much of the state and into Nevada and Idaho on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020. (NOAA/GOES-West)
In the complex that has spread across five counties, four have areas under evacuation orders: Alameda, Stanislaus, Santa Clara and San Joaquin counties.
Two people have been injured from this fire, according to Cal Fire.
"The wind will be gusty each afternoon and evening through the end of the week," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist David Samuhel said, though adding the winds would probably be a bit lighter than they had been on Wednesday. However, the relative humidity will stay low.
AccuWeather meteorologists are currently monitoring the possibility of remnants from Hurricane Genevieve bringing dry thunderstorms to the area Sunday night and Monday, which could lead to a repeat of lighting-caused infernos.
"Temperatures will be in the 90s for highs each day," Samuhel said.
For a list of areas under evacuation from the SCU Lightning Complex, click here.
Moc Fire
The Moc Fire near Highway 49 and Highway 120 near Moccasin, California, is one of the most recent fires to ignite in the state. First reported on Thursday, Aug. 20, the fire had burned 600 acres and was 0% contained.
The Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office issued mandatory evacuations late Thursday afternoon from Highway 120 at Moccasin through Big Oak Flat to Merrell Road in Groveland. The evacuation area includes Priest Coulterville Road.
River Fire
Having burned 33,974 acres of Monterey County near Pine Canyon and River Road, east of Salinas, since its start on Sunday, the River Fire is only 9% contained and continues to actively burn in all directions as of Thursday afternoon.
The fire has injured four people, both fire personnel and civilians, according to CalFire. Two structures were reported to have been damaged and another six destroyed by the blaze.
For a list of areas under evacuation from the River Fire, click here.
Apple Fire
The Apple Fire burns behind mountains near Beaumont, Calif., Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
The Apple Fire, a human-caused fire that has been burning since July 31 and has scorched over 33,400 acres, was at 95% containment as of Tuesday afternoon.
Crews are currently monitoring for mudflows and flash floods, according to InciWeb, with the fire burning away vegetation that would otherwise hold soil in place, as the charred ground may not absorb rainwater.
Lake Fire
The Lake Fire, at over 27,000 acres, is 52% contained. Mandatory evacuations in the area remain in place as the blaze, burning in the Angeles National Forest, creeps towards 100-year-old trees, including Big Cone Douglas Fir, Oak and Gray pine, according to InciWeb.
The cause of the Lake Fire is unknown, and as of Wednesday, there has been only one injury reported. Six structures were reported to have been damaged by the blaze as well as 21 structures destroyed. The InciWeb report noted that crews are watching for fire whirls, or fire devils, which is a spinning vortex column of rising hot air and gases from a fire.
Image of the Lake Fire on Aug. 17, 2020. The fire had burned over 21,000 acres as of Aug. 18. (Twitter/@kathrynbarger)
Hills Fire
The Hills Fire, which started to burn on Saturday, Aug. 15, is burning near Avenal, California and has scorched 1,900 acres. The combination of steep terrain and extreme heat is making it difficult for firefighting crews, but they have managed to reach 45% containment, as of Thursday evening.
On Wednesday morning, a helicopter that was being used in firefighting operations crashed near New Coalinga Municipal Airport. The crash sparked a new fire, according to ABC30. The cause of the crash is still unknown.
“This morning a Call When Needed (CWN) helicopter crashed while fighting a wildfire in western Fresno County. The Bell UH-1H helicopter was on a water dropping mission on the Hills Fire, approximately 9 miles south of the City of Coalinga,” CalFire said in a press release on Wednesday afternoon. “The pilot was the only person aboard the helicopter and did not survive the incident.”
Loyalton Fire
The Loyalton Fire ignited on Friday, Aug. 14, around 4:30 p.m. PDT to the northeast of Loyalton, California. The blaze made headlines on Saturday, Aug. 15, after the National Weather Service's office in Reno, Nevada, issued a rare tornado warning as the flames clashed with intense winds. The office noted "extremely dangerous fire behavior" and "rotating columns and potential for fire whirls" in one tweet. The winds had reached speeds of up to 60 mph, just below EF0 tornado strength.
"The Loyalton Fire to the east of the Sierra Valley exploded most impressively this afternoon, with a very large pyrocumulus and reports of fire tornadoes," the NWS warning said. "Due to the possibility of very strong fire-generated winds and extreme fire behavior with danger to fire personnel, a tornado warning was issued to heighten awareness in the area of the fire."
A fire tornado formed on Aug. 15 when flames from the Loyalton Fire clashed with intense winds. (Twitter/@v3katelynn)
As of Thursday evening the fire had scorched an estimated 46,617 acres and was 60% contained. Although mandatory evacuation orders remained in place for Balls Canyon Road and Long Valley Road, all evacuation orders were lifted for the areas of Sierra Brooks and Copperfield. Highway 49, Highway 395 and Highway 70 have all reopened, and evacuation orders in Lassen County have been lifted.
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The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Dome Fire
In the Mojave National Preserve south of Las Vegas, the Dome Fire had grown to 43,000 acres as of Wednesday, Aug. 19, and was 5% contained. On Sunday, the fire was reportedly more than 5,000 acres in size. However, despite its explosion of growth, Samuhel noted that the Loyalton and Grizzly fires were more of a threat to residents, as they were closer to homes.
By Thursday evening, containment had reached 93%, the blaze at 43,273 acres.
Again, the winds will work against firefighters this week during the afternoons and evenings as they battling this blaze.
"Wind gusts of 20 to 30 mph are likely each afternoon and evening for the next several days," Samuhel said.
Grizzly Creek and Pine Gulch fires
The Grizzly Creek Fire, which ignited one mile east of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, on the afternoon of Aug. 10, has burnt 29,732 acres and was at 11% containment as of Thursday evening.
Downwind, the massive Pine Gulch Fire north of Grand Junction, Colorado, exploded to 122,550 acres by Thursday evening, becoming the state's second-largest wildfire in Colorado history, according to the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center. The fire is just 17% contained.
The Hayman Fire from 2002 was the largest wildfire in the state's history at 137,760 acres, according to the Denver Post.
While the cause of the Grizzly Fire is unknown, InciWeb reports lightning caused the Pine Gulch Fire.
Firefighters worked at night to contain the Pine Gulch Fire in Colorado. (InciWeb)
"It will be hot with high temperatures [from] 95 to 100 each of the next few days. There will be 10- to 20-mph winds during the afternoon and evening," Samuhel said. "Isolated thunderstorms cannot be ruled out any afternoon and will produce locally strong winds and perhaps dry lightning."
Samuhel added the storms may not deliver a significant amount of rain.
Related:
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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