FLAGSTAFF, Arizona (AP) – The western United States on Monday marked another day of hot, dry, windy weather as California crews in New Mexico battled wildfires that had forced hundreds of people to flee their homes .
About 2,500 homes have been evacuated due to two wildfires that burned on the outskirts of Flagstaff, northern Arizona, officials said in a briefing in the afternoon.
“We have all felt the pain of seeing our beautiful mountain burn. We recognized the incredibly difficult time this is for those who have been evacuated and for those whose homes have been threatened,” the board chairwoman said. of Coconino County Supervisors Patrice Horstman.
The forest fire forced the county to declare an emergency. It has been fueled by strong winds that have put planes on the ground as an option for firefighting. Crews plan to be able to use the planes on Tuesday when the winds are moderate, authorities said.
Incident Cmdr. Aaron Graeser said the fire in the Flagstaff area is one of the country’s top priorities for firefighting resources.
“Every potential source of fire was a problem today, and all potential unburned areas were receptive to fire today,” Graeser said. “This puts us in an interesting position to try, again, to allocate resources as best we can based on that.”
Current conditions have also prevented firefighters from mapping it better by air, but the fire is estimated to be 20 square kilometers.
Teams were expecting gusts of up to 50 mph (80 km / h) as they battled the blaze, which has burned parts of the footprint left by another spring fire that destroyed more than two dozen homes, as well as parts of the fire. ‘other fire scars.
So far, a house and a secondary structure have been lost in the fire that was first reported on Sunday, said Sheriff’s Office deputy director Bret Axlund.
Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort closed as a precaution due to the forest fire, the second to hit the area this year.
“It’s literally like a déjà vu,” said Jon Paxton, a spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff. “We are in the same place doing exactly what we did a month and a half ago. People are tired. “
Two other smaller forest fires northeast of the blaze were also burning on Monday.
Forest fires erupted earlier this spring in several western states in the United States, where climate change and a lasting drought are fueling the frequency and intensity of forest and pasture fires.
The number of square miles 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 wildfires that destroyed hundreds of homes while causing environmental damage. ‘expected to affect water supplies.
Nationwide, more than 6,200 forest firefighters were battling nearly three dozen uncontrolled fires that had charred more than 1 million acres (4,408 square kilometers), according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Even in Alaska, meteorologists have warned that many fires in the southwest have grown exceptionally over the past week, which is unusual for this area. Southwest Alaska typically experiences shorter periods of high fire risk because intermittent rain can provide relief, but since mid-May the region has been hot and windy, helping to dry vegetation.
The favorable weather on Monday helped slow the progression of a tundra forest fire just over 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) away from a native Alaska village. Moderate temperatures and a change in the wind that had been driving the fire towards St. Mary’s will allow firefighters to directly attack the flames and increase protections for the Yup’ik community.
The lightning fire is estimated at about 193 square miles (500 square kilometers). It is burning dry grass and tundra shrubs mostly without trees in southwest Alaska.
In California, evacuations of some 300 remote homes were ordered near a forest fire that broke out over the weekend in the woods northeast of Los Angeles, near the Pacific Crest Trail in the San Gabriel Mountains.
The fire saw renewed growth on Sunday afternoon and at noon on Monday had burned about 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers) of dry pines and bushes, fire spokeswoman Dana Dierkes said.
“The fuel is very dry, so it acts like a ladder, carrying the flames from the bottom of the trees to the top,” Dierkes said. Crews also faced unpredictable winds that were expected to intensify later in the day, he said.
Aside from the mandatory evacuations for some, the rest of the mountain town of Wrightwood, with about 4,500 residents, was under an evacuation notice. Several roads were also cut.
The fire was contained in 18%.
Five people were rescued from a dangerous area after a forest fire broke out near Dulzura, San Diego County, near the Mexican border, on Monday, and spread to about 600 acres (242 hectares), they said. the authorities.
Two of the rescued were taken to a hospital, but it was not known how they were injured or their condition, firefighters said.
Fire conditions were high due to the hot, dry weather over the weekend in Southern California. It was expected to be cooler on Monday, but another heat wave was expected in the middle of the week, the National Meteorological Service said.
In Northern California, a 50-mile (80 km) stretch of State Route 70 closed indefinitely Monday after mud, rocks and dead trees flooded the lanes during flash floods along a scar. forest fire burns.
Several drivers were rescued on Sunday evening from the rubble flowing down the freeway when the slopes of the hills burned by last year’s great Dixie Fire fell apart. No injuries were reported.
The causes of the recent fires in California were under investigation.
U.S. Forest Service agents on Saturday summoned a 57-year-old camper to light toilet paper and place it under a rock near the source of the Arizona forest fire. The fire was reported a day later. Judicial documents show the man told authorities he tried to put out the fire with his sleeping bag, but his lawyer told the federal court on Monday that this does not mean his client was responsible for causing the fire.
Flagstaff resident Janetta Kathleen rode her horse, Squish, up a hill to get a better view of the forest fire on Sunday evening and saw him advance toward the houses in the shade of the mountain. His house is not directly on the path of the fire, but his family, two bulldogs and horses are ready to go out at any moment.
“I need to know what’s going on because I have decisions to make for my family,” he said. “If the wind changes, we will have problems.”
Hikers, campers and others who were enjoying the forest also had to leave on Sunday. A shelter was set up at a high school.
Strong winds sent embers along Route 89 of the United States, the main route to the turnoff at the entrance to the east bank of the Grand Canyon, through the Navajo Nation, and into Utah. Many people travel between the reservation and Flagstaff to work. Parts of the road remained closed on Monday.
“We’re not working directly to put out the fire to get it all out right now,” Coconino National Forest spokesman Brady Smith said. “This is not our goal and it is not possible right now. Right now, it will focus on protecting life and property.”
Fire smoke near Flagstaff on Monday caused foggy skies in Colorado, obscuring the Rocky Mountain views from Denver and other cities along the state’s Front Range.
Meanwhile, firefighters worked to contain a small forest fire that burned a juniper and a pine cone that briefly sparked evacuation orders Sunday in the Rio Grande National Forest in the San Luis Valley, southern Colorado.
The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for high fire hazards in central and southern Colorado, as well as parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
Winds are expected to ease after Monday with some humidity later this week in parts of the southwest, the weather service said.
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Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska; Jim Anderson in Denver; and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.