A California brushfire triggered evacuation orders on Wednesday as it quickly grew to cover more than 650 acres while crews worked to battle the blaze.
Progress in fighting the blaze had temporarily stopped earlier in the day when it burned near a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department facility that stores live weapons and ammunition, KABC reported.
Officials had advised firefighters to hold back for their safety at the time.
A helicopter reporter for KCBS-TV tweeted that ‘flames creeping near homes are being snuffed out’ by firefighting crews after wind had calmed down. The outlet noted that no injuries were immediately reported.
The evacuations were lifted around 10pm when crews were able to stop the fire’s forward progress and had contained 25% of the inferno, the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station tweeted.
No property damage or injuries have been reported as a result of the blaze.
Firefighters work to contain the North Fire burning near Valencia and Castaic, north of Los Angeles, California
A California brushfire triggered evacuation orders on Wednesday as it quickly grew to cover more than 650 acres while crews worked to battle the blaze
The evacuations were lifted around 10pm when crews were able to stop the fire’s forward progress and had contained 25% of the inferno
Crews are seen battling flames in the backyard of a home with pool on Wednesday
Firefighters work to contain the North Fire burning near Valencia and Castaic, north of Los Angeles
Progress in fighting the blaze had temporarily stopped earlier in the day when it burned near a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department facility
The flames creeping near homes were being ‘snuffed out’ by firefighting crews after wind had calmed down
Dubbed the ‘North Fire’, the blaze was first spotted around 2pm in the Wayside Canyon area in Castaic before it spread to the Valencia and Santa Clarita area, KABC reported.
It was initially described as about one acre but grew to 4-10 acres within minutes. It had burned about 90 acres by 4pm and reached an alarming 650 acres by 8pm before it was decidedly under control.
Firefighting crews used fixed wing aircraft, air tankers, and helicopters – as well as ground crews – to contain the fire.
California is facing a ‘long dry summer’ and droughts that may cause the fire season to start early, Paul Lowenthal, an assistant fire marshal for Santa Rosa, has said.
Photos reveal how Lake Oroville is at 42 percent of its 3,537,577 acre foot capacity while about 85% of California suffers ‘exceptional’ drought.
Lake Oroville, a reservoir formed by the Oroville Dam impounding the Feather River in northern California, has been seen with a dry and cracked riverbed – a sobering reminder of the massive drought that ran from 2012 to 2016.
Last month, Lake Oroville was at just 38% of its capacity – which was alarming for officials considering the reservoir was described as ‘the poster child in that spate of drought images seven years ago,’ SFist.com reported.
Water district boards in Marin County and Santa Clara Valley have met to discuss possible restrictions on water usage and encourage conservation, the outlet reported.
‘We have no idea how long it will last or how bad it might get,’ said Tony Estremera, chairman of the Santa Clara Valley Water District board, according to the Mercury News. ‘Clearly we can’t just sit back and wait for more rain.’
The mood has been described as ‘increasingly grim’ by The Los Angeles Times while the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir which provides much of the water for southwestern states, may face its first federally declared water shortage.
A new study from QuoteWizard.com, an insurance company, has examined data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as property risk evaluations while seeking to find out what states are facing the highest wildfire risk in 2021.
A firefighter is seen battling the quick-spreading North Fire in the Santa Clarita Valley
A fixed-wing tanker makes a drop of fire retardant on the North Fire in Castaic on Wednesday
Firefighters prepare to battle the North Fire from a backyard on Via Patina, Wednesday
A firefighter prepares to battle the North Fire from a backyard on Via Patina, Wednesday
A helicopter makes a drop over the fire as firefighters work at containing the North Fire burning near Valencia and Castaic
A helicopter makes a drop over the fire as firefighters work at containing the North Fire burning near Valencia and Castaic
A firefighter is seen working to put out a blaze that scorched more than 650 acres
Firefighters work to contain the North Fire burning near Valencia and Castaic, north of Los Angeles, California
A helicopter makes a drop over the fire as firefighters work at containing the North Fire burning near Valencia and Castaic
Nick VinZant, who works for QuoteWizard.com, told KABC-TV that ‘85% of California is in severe, extreme, or exceptional drought.’
‘Compare that to last year only 12% of the state was at that same level,’ VinZant said.
Last week, projections released by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation show that the elevation of the water in Lake Mead, which sits near Las Vegas at the Nevada-Arizona border, will be just 1,067 feet at the end of this year, the Review-Journal reported.
If the water hits that low of a level, there would be a federal shortage declaration for the first time since the lake was filled in the 1930s. The declaration would reduce the annual amount of water sent to Arizona and Nevada.
Patti Aaron, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Bureau of Reclamation, told that the projections ‘are not cause for immediate concern’ despite being in a drought for 22 years, the outlet reported.
Lake Mead’s water level was at about 1,082 feet on Monday meaning the water is under 40 percent of the lake’s 28,945,000 acre-feet capacity. Lake Mead loses about 800,000 acre-feet of water annually through evaporation, according to the Water Education Foundation.
The Arizona Republic noted that the water level of Lake Mead has dropped more than 130 feet since the beginning of 2000- the last time the surface of the lake ‘lapped at the spillway gates on Hoover Dam.’