Residents evacuated as fires rage across West

Wildfires that ignited over the weekend burned hundreds of acres of land in California and Utah, prompting evacuation orders as they torched homes, threatened nearby communities and, in Salt Lake City, burned near the state capitol.

The fires roared across the West amid an unrelenting stretch of intense heat that’s expected to continue through the week. The National Weather Service has issued heat warnings and advisories from southern California to Washington, Idaho and Wyoming as tripledigit temperatures are expected across multiple states.

In Southern California, the Hawarden Fire, just 4 miles south of downtown Riverside, began on Sunday and grew to 500 acres, forcing residents to leave their homes as the fire rapidly expanded. Three homes were destroyed in a roaring blaze that was captured on video by local news crews.

Riverside Deputy Fire Chief Steve McKinster said at a news conference that four other structures were damaged and the fire is threatening a total of 1,500 homes in the surrounding area. Fifty fire engines and multiple crews were working to extinguish the blaze, which McKinster said was reported around 1 p.m. PDT as a vegetation fire.

Another wildfire in Riverside County, the Eagle Fire, broke out on Sunday and also spread across 500 acres, triggering evacuation orders that were eventually downgraded as firefighters were able to contain at least a quarter of the blaze and stop its “forward progress,” according to Cal Fire. The blaze began in the city of Corona, about 18 miles southwest of Riverside.

In Humboldt County, west of Redding, several areas were under evacuation orders as the Hill Fire burned more than 5,500 acres since last Tuesday. The blaze caused at least five injuries, according to Cal Fire.