As cooler, wetter weather helps southern and central California fire crews contain a handful of blazes burning in the region, the National Weather Service warns it likely won’t last.
Starting Monday, the weather service expects another week of hot and dry weather favorable for abnormally elevated fire behavior and growth in inland areas. “Sundowner winds” — warm and dry gusts that typically blow from the deserts out to sea during the evening but are more isolated than the infamous Santa Ana winds — could further fuel any fire ignitions along the I-5 corridor.
It comes just days after a lengthy heatwave powered multiple fast-growing fires, including the 132,000-acre Gifford fire in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, and the King and Hawk fires in L.A. County.
On Wednesday and Thursday, crews working on the Gifford fire capitalized on the cooler, humid weather to undertake an extensive backfiring campaign, using fire to intentionally burn strips of vegetation to create a fuel break to contain the blaze along the northern perimeter.
By Saturday morning, crews had upped containment to 73%, compared to 37% Tuesday, thanks to the nearly 5,000-person crew’s backfiring operations and aerial attacks.
“We’re still not out of the woods, but we’re getting closer,” said Rich Eagan, public information officer with the California Interagency Incident Management Team overseeing the fire. “To control a 131,000-plus-acre fire in two weeks is pretty incredible.”
It’s allowed the team to begin reducing its size and mopping up the fire — ensuring no hot spots or smoldering embers remain on the scorched landscape to restart a blaze.
The King fire erupted early Thursday morning along the 5 Freeway, near Pyramid Lake, amid gusts as high as 30 mph. It burned two unoccupied RVs and threatened to jump the freeway several times, forcing officials to temporarily close all lanes. But by Friday evening, crews managed to reach 75% containment on the nearly 600-acre fire.
Firefighters on the Hawk fire, which started Thursday afternoon southwest of Palmdale, reached 76% containment Saturday morning.
All remaining evacuation warnings for the two fires were lifted Friday morning. Meanwhile, large swaths of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties remained under evacuation orders and warnings Saturday.
But, with six blazes still active in southern and central California, temperatures are expected to peak again by Thursday, topping 100 degrees in some inland areas.
The weather service also warned of a high risk for heat-related illnesses for pets and heat-sensitive individuals beginning on Wednesday, with Palmdale, Santa Clarita and Paso Robles expected to see the highest temperatures.
It did not indicate any possibility of red flag fire conditions, a designation reserved for the most extreme combinations of dryness, heat and wind that can lead to extensive wildfires that are difficult to control.
