Southern California firefighters on Friday began to stem the growth of several destructive wildfires as much cooler and wetter weather blanketed the West.
Three major blazes erupted in mountain communities east of Los Angeles during a recent heat wave that pushed temperatures as high as 115 degrees. Together, the fast-moving fires displaced tens of thousands of people, burned dozens of homes and strained the state’s firefighting resources.
But firefighters have started to gain the upper hand as winds quiet, moisture levels increase and temperatures drop. Forecasters said that even cooler weather was expected next week and that there was a 30 percent chance that light rain would fall where the fires are currently burning.
“Weather-wise, we are in a starkly different situation than we were when these fires erupted,” said Jonathan Suk, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s San Diego office, which provides forecasts for a large swath of Southern California. Here’s what we know about the three major fires.
The Fires
Fires ignite all the time, but it’s only under certain conditions that they turn disastrous. Those very conditions were in place earlier this month, when extremely high temperatures and low humidity levels baked California.
To make matters worse, California’s heavy rains in recent years have fueled thick plant growth. All of that vegetation turned to tinder after a warm summer and the brutal heat wave, leaving it primed to burn.
“If the same heat wave would have occurred in a September following two very dry years, it is very likely that there would not be much fire as a result,” said Park Williams, a hydroclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The Bridge fire, California’s largest actively burning fire, at about 52,000 acres, broke out on Sunday in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles. It underwent an alarming explosion from a few thousand acres to 48,000 acres in a matter of hours, threatening homes that dot the hills. As of Thursday evening, the fire remained entirely uncontained, and officials were issuing new evacuation orders for some rural communities.
The Line fire, which has been burning in the San Bernardino Mountains since last week, was 21 percent contained as of Thursday evening. The blaze erupted in a fire-prone region and, fueled by winds, began pushing toward the populated resort communities around Big Bear Lake, prompting tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
On Thursday, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office filed charges against a man suspected of igniting the Line fire. Authorities say he set three fires in the foothills on Sept. 5, one of which exploded into the now 37,000-acre blaze.
The Airport fire began Monday afternoon about 15 miles east of Irvine, Calif., near a flying field for remote-controlled model airplanes, hence the name. It began mushrooming in size as soon as it broke out and jumped a freeway, endangering homes in Orange and Riverside Counties. The fire is currently 23,000 acres and 5 percent contained.
The Damage
The Bridge fire has destroyed 20 homes in the Mount Baldy area and 13 in the community of Wrightwood, both small villages, and six cabins in rural areas, officials say. An additional 5,000 structures are currently threatened by the fire.
The fire was most recently threatening the community of Piñon Hills, where about 7,000 people live, but firefighters said the easing weather meant they would be better able to protect homes there.
The Line fire, which began in the San Bernardino Mountains, has destroyed at least one home in the rural community of Running Springs in the San Bernardino Mountains.
The potential for damage from the Line fire was colossal, with 65,000 structures in the areas where there have been evacuation orders or warnings.
Firefighters’ biggest concern had been that winds could help push the flames northeast, into the populated resort communities around Big Bear Lake. But though the fire burned about 800 acres in that area on Wednesday, firefighters said on Thursday that they were confident it could be prevented from reaching the homes around Big Bear, where thousands have been forced to evacuate.
The Airport fire, which is burning in Orange and Riverside Counties, destroyed several homes in the city of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. In El Cariso Village, a community in the hills above Lake Elsinore, blackened shells of cars were parked among charred tree trunks. Remnants of a burned home’s patio were strewed with mangled deck chairs. It’s unclear when evacuees may be able to go home.
Firefighters have been dedicating resources to protect communications towers on Santiago Peak — the highest peak in the Santa Ana Mountains and the site of important broadcasting and radio infrastructure for the region. In total, the Airport fire was threatening 10,500 structures across the region, as of Thursday evening.
The Outlook
The fight against all three fires will benefit from much cooler weather in the coming days. Temperatures on Monday are expected to fall to as much as 20 degrees below normal for this time of year, with higher moisture levels as well.
“I think we’re going to see, as long as we don’t have any dramatic wind changes or weather changes, that you’ll be able to see our firefighters increasing that containment percentage,” Shannon D. Dicus, the San Bernardino County sheriff, said about the Line fire on Thursday.
Cooler and wetter weather has also delivered significant relief for firefighters battling major blazes in Idaho and Oregon that have consumed grasslands and forests and threatened mountain communities.
Officials hope that the improving conditions will give taxed firefighters and other emergency responders a much-needed break in an unusually active fire season throughout the West, including California.
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