Northern California crews make progress on blazes in Calaveras, Colusa counties
Firefighters up and down the state made significant progress on a number of wildfires that have been burning for days and were close to extinguishing a couple of them, Cal Fire said early Thursday.
The most significant progress came in the fight against the Aero Fire in Calaveras County. Crews have now reached 52% containment on that blaze at 6:05 a.m. It has burned 5,351 acres. Two structures have been confirmed to have been destroyed.
Cal Fire said crews would continue to build containment lines on Thursday as they rushed to beat a heat wave that is set to settle into the Bay Area and much of the state on Friday. Temperatures are expected to be in the high 90s and 100s in the interior parts of most of the state, according to the National Weather Service.
Crews also neared full containment on the Point Fire in Sonoma County, which has not grown in the past 48 hours. It has burned 1,207 acres and is now 70% contained. Most of the firefighting operation in that blaze has been reduced to monitoring for hot spots in and around the fire’s perimeter. Five structures have been destroyed in that fire, and one firefighter was injured.
Firefighters have considerably more work to do to put out the Sites Fire in Colusa County. At 6:30 a.m. Thursday, that fire has scorched 19,195 acres, making it the biggest wildfire in the state. It was just 15% contained. Crews made progress on both the west and east sides of the fire on Wednesday, according to Cal Fire and will continue to build containment lines on the north side on Thursday in an effort to prevent its spread, the agency said.
The biggest fire in Southern California also continued to burn near Interstate 5. The Post Fire, which had scorched land in Los Angeles and Ventura counties is up to 15,690 acres and was 47% contained at 6:45 a.m. According to Cal Fire, crews are now focused on the interior terrain, while shuttle boats and helicopters continued to work on the fire in the steep terrain and remote brush areas.
Crews also closed in on full containment of the Hesperia Fire in San Bernardino County. Cal Fire said it was 94% contained after having burned 1,078 acres.
How many acres have burned so far?
Cal Fire, formally the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said wildfire season is in full gear.
The agency said wildfires were up just 9% this spring but the amount of acreage burned “skyrocketed” between the start of the year and June 19 by 1,462%, to nearly 90,000 acres from a little over 5,700 acres in the same period a year ago.
Cal Fire said “95% of these wildfires are human-caused, fueled by dry grasses and strong winds.”
Over a five-year average, according to Cal Fire, the number of fires has stayed relatively the same, but acreage has risen more than five-fold to 89,784 acres.
The Bee’s Vincent Medina contributed to this story.
