Falling temperatures and rising humidity will give firefighters a brief window to gain more ground against three large wildfires in Southern California, authorities said Sunday.
“It's helping a ton,” said Capt. Steve Concialdi, who is serving as public information officer for the airport fire in Orange and Riverside counties, where overnight humidity levels exceeded 90% in some areas on Saturday.
“It’s helping us increase our containment lines and firefighters can work longer in these cooler temperatures,” Concialdi said. “We’re not experiencing heat-related illnesses.”
But climate change also has its advantages and disadvantages.
“We expect quite strong winds during [Monday] “Overnight and also at higher elevations, that could present some issues,” said Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
While the layer of moist air in the marine layer thickens and reaches 4,500 feet on Sunday, conditions above that elevation remain dry. Lewis said the upper peaks could see wind gusts of up to 45 mph, meaning cooler air for valley residents but posing a challenge for fire crews. Lewis said the marine layer, with its cold, moist air, could deepen to 6,000 feet on Monday.
In San Bernardino County, the Line Fire moved slowly over the weekend, but the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said moisture and the chance of light rain late Sunday should give firefighters a chance to extinguish hot spots and consolidate control lines surrounding a third of the 36,000-acre blaze. The fire was 36% contained as of Sunday afternoon.
Paul Faulstick, 67, walks through the ruins of his friend David Mix’s property, which was destroyed in the bridge fire along Bear Canyon Road in Mount Baldy on Thursday. “It was like Armageddon,” David Mix, 50, said of the fire. “This place is like a relative. I had to know if she was gone,” Mix concluded.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
The Bridge Fire, which spans nearly 55,000 acres in the San Gabriel Mountains of San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, continues to move north and west, but the agency said firefighters are holding lines to the south and east, although the Mount Baldy area remains under evacuation orders. The fire is only 9% contained.
In the Santa Ana Mountains, the Airport Fire was holding steady Saturday night, covering less than 24,000 acres and giving ground crews a chance to get into hard-to-reach areas around Trabuco Canyon and establish fire lines. To date, 115 residences and three businesses have been destroyed, and 12 firefighters and two civilians have been reported injured. The fire is 19% contained.
Fire plans called for front-line fire crews to fly in and out to these remote areas to set up camps from which they would work for several days putting out anything that was burning. “If the wind shifts or the Santa Ana [wind] “We want to make sure that all those hot spots are extinguished,” Concialdi said.
In addition to other developments on the ground, Riverside County on Saturday downgraded evacuation orders in some areas to warning status.
Dry conditions continue to prevail at upper elevations. State officials said the Line Fire near Big Bear Lake remained active on higher ground. On the Airport Fire, Modjeska Peak remained dry and state officials warned that burning vegetation above 4,000 feet still had the potential to ignite and roll downslope to ignite unburned vegetation.
The high pressure system that encased Southern California in a dome of heat last week has been pushed aside by the passage of a weak and dying cold front. Local weather forecasts called for slightly below normal temperatures, thick overnight fog and high humidity, and a chance of light showers through Monday. Light showers are again in the forecast for Wednesday before National Weather Service forecasts call for temperatures to rise slightly above normal again.
Air quality advisories remained in effect in all four counties as smoke polluted the air with fine particulate matter. The South Coast Air Quality Management District advised residents to limit outdoor activities.
A firefighting helicopter battles the Airport Fire by dropping water near Santiago Peak on Tuesday. The Airport Fire has scorched more than 9,000 acres.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
