California, parts of West broil and burn
Firefighters battle searing heat to quell largest wildfire
Firefighters working in searing heat struggled to contain the largest wildfire in California this year while state power operators urged people to conserve energy after a huge wildfire in neighbouring Oregon disrupted the flow of electricity from three major transmission lines.
A large swath of the West baked during the weekend in triple-digit temperatures that were expected to continue into the start of the work week. The California Independent System Operator that manages the state’s power grid issued a five-hour “flex alert” starting at 4pm today and asked consumers to “conserve as much electricity as possible” to avoid outages.
Do not stop and take pictures. You are going to impede our work if you stop and look at what’s going on ... It seems like the worst is over in Doyle, but fire’s still on in the mountains.”
Jake Cagle | Fire chief
Drought adds to woes
California and other parts of the West are sinking deeper into drought and that has sent fire danger sky high in many areas. In Arizona, a small plane crashed on Saturday during a survey of a wildfire in rural Mohave County, killing both crew members.
The Beech C-90 aircraft was helping perform reconnaissance over the lightningcaused Cedar Basin Fire, near Wikieup in Phoenix. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
Fire spreads in Oregon
In Oregon, the Bootleg Fire exploded to 580 square kilometres as it raced through heavy timber in the FremontWinema National Forest, near the Klamath County town of Sprague River. The fire disrupted service on three transmission lines providing up to 5,500 megawatts of electricity to neighbouring California. The largest wildfire of the year in California was raging near the border with Nevada.
The Beckwourth Complex Fire — a combination of two lightning-caused blazes burning north of Lake Tahoe — grew by a third Sunday to 348 kilometres. However, firefighters working in temperatures that topped 38 degrees Celsius were able to gain some ground.
“Do not stop and take pictures, You are going to impede our operations if you stop and look at what’s going on,” said the fire’s Operations Section Chief Jake Cagle.
He said structures had burnt in Doyle, but he didn’t have an exact number. Bob Prary, who manages the Buck-Inn Bar, said he saw at least six houses destroyed. “It seems like the worst is over in town, but back on the mountainside the fire’s still going strong,” Prary said.