FLAGSTAF, Arizona (AP) – The western United States on Monday marked another day of hot, dry and windy weather as crews from California to New Mexico battled wildfires that forced hundreds of people to flee their homes.
Approximately 2,500 homes have been evacuated due to two forest fires on the outskirts of Flagstaff in northern Arizona, officials said at an afternoon briefing.
“We all felt the pain of watching our beautiful mountain burn. We have acknowledged how incredibly difficult this is for those who have been evacuated and for those whose homes have been threatened, “said Patrice Horstman, chairman of the Coconino County Board of Supervisors.
The forest fire caused the county to declare a state of emergency. It is fueled by strong winds that landed planes as an option for firefighting. The crews plan to be able to use the planes on Tuesday in moderate winds, authorities said.
Incident Commander Aaron Grazer said the fire in the Flagstaff area was one of the country’s top priorities for firefighting resources.
“Every potential source of fire today was a problem and every potential unburned area was susceptible to fire today,” Grazer said. “This puts us in an interesting situation of trying again to devote resources to the best we can based on that.”
The current conditions also do not allow fire managers to be able to map it better by air, but the fire is estimated at 8 square miles (20 square kilometers).
Crews expected gusts of up to 50 miles per hour (80 km / h) as they battled the blaze, which burned parts of the footprint left by another spring fire that destroyed more than two dozen homes and parts of other fiery traits.
So far, one home and secondary structure have been lost in the fire, first reported on Sunday, said Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Deputy Brett Aklund.
The Arizona ski resort Snowbowl closed as a precaution against a wildfire – the second to hit the area this year.
“It’s literally like déjà vu,” said Coconino County Sheriff’s spokesman John Paxton. “We are in exactly the same place and we are doing the same thing we were a month and a half ago. “People are tired.”
Two other smaller forest fires northeast of the fire also burned on Monday.
Forest fires broke out early this spring in many states in the western United States, where climate change and prolonged drought are increasing the frequency and intensity of forest and grazing fires.
The number of square miles burned so far this year is more than twice the national average for 10 years, and states like New Mexico have already set records with devastating fires that destroyed hundreds of homes while causing the expected environmental damage. to affect the water supply.
Nationwide, more than 6,200 wildfire firefighters are battling nearly three dozen wildfires that have charred more than 1 million acres (4,408 square kilometers), according to the National Interdepartmental Fire Center.
Even in Alaska, forecasters have warned that many fires in the southwestern part of the country have spread exclusively in the last week, which is unusual for this area. Southwest Alaska usually experiences shorter periods of high fire risk, as intermittent rains can provide relief, but since mid-May the region has been hot and windy, helping to dry out vegetation.
Favorable weather on Monday helped slow the progression of a forest fire in the tundra just over 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from a local village in Alaska. The moderate temperatures and the change in the wind that drove the fire towards St. Mary’s, will allow firefighters to directly attack the flames and increase the protection of the Yup’ik community.
The fire caused by lightning is estimated at about 193 square miles (500 square kilometers). Burns dry grass and shrubs in the mostly treeless tundra of southwestern Alaska.
In California, evacuations have been ordered for about 300 remote homes near a wildfire that erupted over the weekend in forest land northeast of Los Angeles near the Pacific Crest Trail in the San Gabriel Mountains.
The blaze resumed on Sunday afternoon and burned about 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers) of pine trees and dry bushes by noon on Monday, fire spokeswoman Dana Dirkes said.
“The fuel is very dry, so it acts like a ladder carrying flames from the bottom of the trees to the very top,” Dirkes said. Crews were also battling unpredictable winds that were expected to intensify later in the day, she said.
In addition to the mandatory evacuation for some, the rest of the mountain town of Wrightwood, with about 4,500 residents, was under evacuation warning. Several roads were also closed.
The fire was controlled by 18%.
Five people have been rescued from a danger zone after a wildfire erupted Monday near Dulzura in San Diego County near the Mexican border and spread to nearly 600 acres (242 hectares), authorities said.
Two of the rescued were taken to hospital, but there was no information on how they were injured or their condition, fire officials said.
Fire conditions were raised due to hot and dry weather over the weekend 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, a 50-mile (80 km) stretch of State Route 70 was closed indefinitely on Monday after mud, rocks and dead trees flooded alleys during flash floods along a forest fire scar.
Several drivers were rescued on Sunday night from debris running down the highway as the hills, scorched bare by last year’s huge Dixie Fire, loosened. No casualties were reported.
The causes of the recent fires in California are being investigated.
U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officials cited a 57-year-old camper to set fire to toilet paper and set it under a rock Saturday near the source of an Arizona wildfire. The fire was reported a day later. Court documents show the man told authorities he tried to put out the fire with his sleeping bag, but his lawyer told federal court on Monday that it did not mean his client was responsible for setting the fire.
Flagstaff resident Janet Kathleen rode her horse Squish up the hill to get a better view of Sunday’s wildfire and watched him crawl toward the houses in the shade of the mountain. Her home is not directly on the road to the fire, but her family, two bulldogs and horses are ready to leave at any moment.
“I need to know what’s going on because I need to make decisions for my family,” she said. “If the winds change, we will have problems.”
Tourists, campers and others who enjoyed the forest also had to leave on Sunday. A shelter has been set up in a secondary school.
Strong winds sent fire through American Road 89, the main road to the turnoff for the eastern entrance to the Grand Canyon, through the Navajo nation and up into Utah. Many people travel between the reservation and Flagstaff for work. Parts of the highway remained closed on Monday.
“We are not working directly to put out the fire to put out everything right now,” said Coconino National Forest spokesman Brady Smith. “This is not our focus and it is not possible at the moment. Right now, he will be focused on protecting life and property. “
Smoke from a fire near Flagstaff caused foggy skies in Colorado on Monday, obscuring views of the Denver Rockies and other cities on the state’s front chain.
Firefighters, meanwhile, are working to contain a small juniper and pine forest fire that briefly sparked evacuation orders Sunday in the Rio Grande National Forest in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado.
The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning of high fire risk in central and southern Colorado, as well as parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
The winds are expected to weaken after Monday, and moisture will appear in some parts of the southwestern part of the country later this week, the meteorological service said.
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Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Mark Thyssen in Anchorage, Alaska; Jim Anderson in Denver; and Susan Montoya Brian of Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
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