Cooler temperatures, lighter winds help firefighters as County Fire grows to 72,500 acres
Cooler weather, lighter winds help firefighters
Cooler temperatures, lighter winds and higher humidity levels on Tuesday helped efforts to contain the wildland blaze burning across parts of Yolo and Napa counties, though hundreds of residents on the fire’s southern edge were put on notice that they may have to evacuate should flames continue their southward march.
A smaller number of rural residents on the north end of the fire were ordered to evacuate late Tuesday due to the blaze’s potential spread.
The County Fire, burning mostly in the rugged hills east of Lake Berryessa, had grown Tuesday night by more than 12,000 acres – a small fraction of the gains it made after erupting Saturday and quadrupling in size to 60,000 acres by Monday evening.
The 72,500-acre blaze,
the largest wildland fire in California this year, was threatening nearly 1,000 structures Tuesday, about 10 times the number of buildings considered at risk on Monday. Most were seasonal and year-round homes along the Highway 128 corridor, which runs along the southern end of Lake Berryessa.
“It burned very actively overnight (Monday), was
still burning in the morning and is still burning now,” said Calfire Capt. Jordan Motta. “But today’s looked more favorable weather-wise as opposed to the first few days. Lower temperatures, winds were a lot lighter and the humidity was really up and helping us with our firefight.”
Containment was reported at 15 percent on Tuesday evening and Calfire
officials said they hoped that full control of the blaze could be achieved by July 10.
Shifting winds each day have pushed the fire south in the mornings and back north in the late afternoons, leading authorities to advise residents along Highway 128 of their need to potential need to evacuate should the flames race south.