Firefighters are battling a series of wildfires that broke out in California over the weekend amid early summer heat and dry, gusty winds.
The National Weather Service warned that winds carrying “the potential for rapid fire spread” were forecast Monday morning across large swaths of the state, including the Antelope Valley and foothills, Santa Barbara County and wine country. of Northern California and the Sacramento Valley.
The largest fire in the state Monday morning was the Post Fire in Los Angeles County, which burned 14,625 acres and was 8% contained, Cal Fire said. More than 1,100 firefighters and half a dozen helicopters are fighting the flames.
The fire, along Highway 5 near Gorman, prompted the evacuation of 1,200 people in the Hungry Valley Park and Pyramid Lake areas.
The fire burned an auto repair shop, damaged another building and threatened other structures south and west of I-5, authorities said. Los Angeles County Fire Department crews responded quickly, conducting airstrikes with air tankers and water-dropping helicopters.
The Ventura County Fire Department and the U.S. Forest Service assisted in the effort. At one point Sunday, about 400 firefighters and 70 trucks were on the scene, according to Cal Fire.
At least 13 fires started since Saturday in California and burned more than 20,000 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection website.
At the same time, areas from Redding to Modesto are under a Red Flag warning through Tuesday morning due to a combination of summer heat, gusty winds, low humidity and unusually warm overnight temperatures.
In the North Bay hills, areas affected by some of the state's worst wildfires in recent memory, including Mount St. Helena and Lake Berryessa, are under red flag warnings through Monday night.
In Sonoma County, the Point Fire has burned more than 1,000 acres and several structures south of Lake Sonoma. It was 15% contained as of Monday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fire started Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, a smaller fire in Lancaster burned 300 acres and several outbuildings after starting before 4 p.m. Sunday.
In Hesperia, more than 1,100 acres burned, prompting road closures in the area and an evacuation warning for nearby Arrowhead Equestrian Estates. The fire started on Saturday before 7:00 p.m.
On Monday morning, a vegetation fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills, just south of Runyon Canyon, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. Not far from the homes and hidden in a hard-to-reach area, it took firefighters and a water-dropping helicopter more than an hour to put out the flames, even though it only burned about 400 square feet, the department said in an alert. .
