An explosive fire that erupted in California on July 4 has more than doubled in size overnight, rapidly consuming more than 3,000 acres since Tuesday morning.
The rapid Electra fire, blazing through dry grass and steep, rugged terrain east of Sacramento has forced hundreds of evacuations and continues to threaten critical power infrastructure, according to forest department officials and California fire protection (CalFire).
The cause of the fire, which started after noon, is still under investigation, but officials said fireworks or a barbecue could be a possibility. It’s just one of dozens of burns in the dry American west that are preparing for another intense fire season. With months left before wildfire activity typically peaks in the region, more than 4.5 million hectares have been burned in the United States – an amount more than double the 10-year average for this time of year. year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).
The Electra fire, which officials said Monday “burned at a dangerous rate of spread,” and stopped at 0% containment, forced holidaygoers in the area to flee. About 100 people celebrating in a recreation area known as Vox Beach, along a river in the area, will seek refuge in a Pacific Gas & amp; Electric Co., said Gary Redman, sheriff of the Amador country, east of Sacramento.
“Trees continue to fall,” Redman told the Associated Press late Monday, explaining why evacuees have to stay in the facility for hours in the evening. “The whole place is on fire.” Firefighters will have to work to clear a road to the facility so that a bus or patrol car can be brought to carry people. They were evacuated safely, along with PG&E employees, around 9:30 p.m.
The utility company said the fire had also affected power for about 13,100 customers in parts of Amador County and that several distribution lines have been disenergized to protect the bombs fighting the fire, at the request of CalFire.
#ElectraFire burning on both sides of the North Fork Mokelumne River unfortunately has a very strong signature on the satellite tonight (you can see the smoke pen / pyrocumulus transition into an infrared heat signature in this short sunset loop) . #CAwx #CAfire pic.twitter.com/LkmLickXLJ
Along with a high rate of spread, the fire had also shown extreme behavior, generating large plumes of smoke that deteriorated the air quality in the foothills and the Sierra.
“Across California, we’re still paying the price for a long period of drought,” said Jon Heggie, a CalFire battalion leader, who describes the stressed state of landscapes that are most likely to burn. What he called a “recipe for disaster” – the combination of dry vegetation and rising temperatures that persist throughout the night – are symptoms of the climate crisis that has intensified risk conditions. “The fire behavior we see is not like what we started in our career,” he said, adding that the agency had to rethink how it struggles with giant fires.
While risks for ignition now extend over the seasons, they are highest in the summer and fall months in California, when a recurrence of rain is unlikely and the vegetation browns rapidly, cooked by the increase in temperature. But the state is not alone in facing these dangers. Scientists with the NIFC have highlighted in their most recent outlook that the Pacific Northwest areas, Hawaii and Texas are also among those expected to face increased threats in the coming months.
Alaska, which has been hammered by an early onset of unusually hot and dry conditions, has already burned more than 2 million acres of coal this year, breaking records and endangering indigenous communities. More than 200 fires are burning across the state and forecasts have warned that this could be just the beginning of a devastating summer of fires here.
“While this does not guarantee a record fire season this year, it illustrates how dry conditions are throughout the state,” officials wrote in an July 3 update. “It’s also an indicator of how busy firefighters have been so far this season with several months still to go.”
The Associated Press contributed to the report.