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The western United States on Monday marked another day of hot, dry and windy weather as crews from California to New Mexico battled forest fires that had forced hundreds of people to leave their homes.
About 2,500 homes have been evacuated due to two forest fires burning on the outskirts of Flagstaff in northern Arizona, officials said at an afternoon briefing.
“We have all felt the pain of watching our beautiful mountain burn. We recognized what an incredibly difficult time this is for those who have been evacuated and for those whose homes have been threatened,” said the Coconino County Board of Supervisors, Patrice Horstman.
ARIZONA ‘PIPELINE FIRE’ SAFETY EVACUATIONS, SUSPECTED ARRESTED
The wildfire prompted the county to declare an emergency. It has been driven by strong winds that have put planes on the ground as an option for firefighting. Crews plan to be able to use aircraft Tuesday as the wind is moderate, authorities said.
Event Cmdr. Aaron Graeser said the fire in the Flagstaff area is one of the country’s top priorities for firefighting resources.
“Any potential fire source was a problem today, and all potential unburned areas were susceptible to fire today,” Graeser said. “It puts us in an interesting situation where we are again trying to allocate resources the best we can based on it.”
Current conditions have also kept firefighters from being able to better map it with air, but the fire is estimated to be 20 square kilometers.
Crews expected gusts of up to 80 km / h as they battled the fire, which has burned through parts of the footprint following another spring fire that destroyed over two dozen homes as well as parts of other fires.
So far, a home and a secondary structure have been lost in the fire, which was first reported Sunday, Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Bret Axlund said.
The southwestern part has been ravaged by wildfires.
The Arizona Snowbowl ski resort closed as a safety precaution due to the wildfire – the second to hit the area this year.
“It’s literally like déjà vu,” said Coconino County Sheriff’s spokesman Jon Paxton. “We’re in the same place and doing exactly the same thing we did a month and a half ago. People are tired.”
Two other minor wildfires northeast of the fire also burned Monday.
Forest fires broke out early this spring in several states in the western United States, with climate change and a persistent drought boosting the frequency and intensity of forest and grassland fires.
The number of square kilometers burned so far this year is more than double the 10-year national average, and states like New Mexico have already set records with devastating flames that destroyed hundreds of homes, while causing environmental damage that is expected to affect water supply .
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At the national level, more than 6,200 wilderness firefighters battled nearly three dozen uncontrolled fires that had charred over 1 million acres (4,408 square kilometers), according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Even in Alaska, forecasters have warned that many southwestern fires have grown unusually over the past week, which is unusual for this area. Southwest Alaska usually experiences shorter periods of high fire risk because periodic rain can provide relief, but since mid-May, the region has been warm and windy, which has helped dry out the vegetation.
The favorable weather on Monday helped slow the development of a tundra fire just over 4.8 miles away from a native Alaska village. Moderate temperatures and a shift in the wind that had driven the fire towards St. Mary’s, will allow firefighters to directly attack the flames and increase protection for the Yup’ik community.
The lightning-triggered fire is estimated at about 193 square miles (500 square kilometers). It burns dry grass and shrubs in southwest Alaska’s mostly treeless tundra.
A firefighter watches as the fire burns in Wrightwood, California.
(AP Photo / Ringo H.W. Chiu)
In California, evacuation of about 300 remote homes near a wildfire that flared up over the weekend in woodland northeast of Los Angeles near the Pacific Crest Trail in the San Gabriel Mountains was ordered.
The fire saw renewed growth Sunday afternoon and by noon Monday, they had burned about 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers) of pine trees and dry brushes, fire spokeswoman Dana Dierkes said.
“The fuel is very dry, so it acts like a ladder that carries flames from the bottom of the trees to the top,” Dierkes said. Crews also struggled with unpredictable winds that were expected to strengthen later in the day, she said.
Apart from mandatory evacuations for some, the rest of the mountain town of Wrightwood, with about 4,500 inhabitants, was under an evacuation warning. Several roads were also blocked.
NATION’S LARGEST FIRE SKI AGAINST CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY DUE TO BAST WIND
Five people were rescued from a dangerous area after a wildfire broke out Monday near Dulzura in San Diego County near the Mexican border and spread to nearly 600 acres (242 acres), authorities said.
Two of the rescued were taken to a hospital, but there was no immediate message on how they were injured or their condition, firefighters said.
Fire conditions were elevated due to hot and dry weekend weather in Southern California. Monday was expected to be cooler, but another heat wave was expected in the middle of the week, the National Weather Service said.
In Northern California, an 80-mile stretch of State Route 70 was closed indefinitely Monday after mud, boulders and dead trees flooded lanes during lightning flooding along a scar that burned in a forest fire.
Several motorists were rescued Sunday night from debris floating on the highway as mountain slopes burned just by last year’s huge Dixie Fire loosened. No injuries were reported.
The causes of recent fires in California were under investigation.
FIRE DESTROYS PEARLE BEARINGS IN SOUTH CALIFORNIA, EVACUATIONS BOOKED
U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officials cited a 57-year-old camper for lighting toilet paper in a fire and placing it under a rock Saturday near the source of the Arizona wildfire. The fire was reported a day later. Court documents show the man told authorities he was trying to put out the fire with his sleeping bag, but his lawyer said in a federal court Monday that that does not mean his client was responsible for triggering the fire.
Flagstaff resident Janetta Kathleen rode her horse, Squish, up a hill to get a better look at the forest fire Sunday night and saw it crawl toward houses in the shadow of the mountain. Her home is not directly in the path of fire, but her family, two bulldogs and horses are ready to go at a moment’s notice.
“I need to know what’s going on because I have decisions to make for my family,” she said. “If the wind changes, we’ll get in trouble.”
A forest fire is burning on the outskirts of Flagstaff.
(AP Photo / Felicia Fonseca)
Hikers, campers and others who were out enjoying the forest also had to leave on Sunday. A crisis center was set up at a middle school.
Strong winds sent embers across the U.S. Route 89, the main route for the exit to the eastern entrance of the Grand Canyon, through the Navajo Nation and up into Utah. Many people commute between the reservation and Flagstaff to work. Parts of the highway remained blocked Monday.
“We are not working directly to suppress the fire to get it all out right now,” said Coconino National Forest spokesman Brady Smith. “It’s not our focus and it’s not possible right now. Right now it’s going to be focused on protecting life and property.”
Smoke from the fire near Flagstaff caused hazy skies in Colorado on Monday, blurring views of the Rocky Mountains from Denver and other cities along the state’s Front Range.
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Meanwhile, firefighters worked to contain a small wildfire that burned in juniper and pinion pine, briefly causing evacuation orders Sunday in the San Luis Valley’s Rio Grande National Forest in southern Colorado.