Calif. wildfire grows after jumping containment

A fierce wildfire that has devoured drought-parched terrain in northern California with remarkable speed raged on for a sixth day on Monday as evacuations expanded and firefighters began to gain some ground against the flames. “It was ready to go”. Thousands more lie in its path.

Fire officials in the West said what used to be a season has turned into a year-round battle. California has yet to hit late summer’s traditional hot, dry, gusty winds that can reach 100 miles per hour: the Santa Anas, the North Winds, the Diablos. The White Fire in Santa Barbara County is about 50 acres, and the deadly Frog Fire has consumed at least 3,900 acres since it was spotted Thursday and is just 4 percent contained.

Firefighters say they expect full containment by August 10. Structures threatened number 6,301 as of this morning.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. (AP) — As firefighters battled a massive Northern California wild land blaze threatening numerous homes, some of the 13,000 people urged to flee their residences were spending what may be just one of many nights in evacuation shelters. This is the first time this year they are being activated to do battle.

The worst wildfire now affecting California, the “Rocky fire”, has engulfed 60,000 acres (94 square miles). One firefighter was killed at the scene of a fire at the Modoc National Forest, 100 miles south of the Oregon border, and four other were burned in a blaze near Sacramento.

The planes are equipped with large devices called Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems, or MAFFS. The oaks, conifers and brush in the region haven’t burned before, making conditions more volatile and recovery of the landscape more uncertain.

Jeff Arnold of the Long Beach Fire Department douses flames from a wildfire near Clearlake, Calif., on Monday.

There are 21 wildfires raging throughout California today (Aug. 3), with many of them sparked by lightning strikes.

“I’m taking my grandbaby and my daughter and leaving”, Cook said.

“We do have the high fire risk, because a lot of vegetation that we have down here is highly flammable, like the chamise and the red shank that we do have and that’s native to Southern California”.

The Sierra, he said, is loaded with similarly dense, unburned forests.

“You look one way and it’s blue sky”, Cook said.

“Fuels were at midsummer levels back in early June”, Collins said. “No previous Lake County fire has matched the Rocky fire’s behavior”.

“The plus that Mother Nature is giving is that we do have moisture in the area”, National Weather Service meteorologist Brooke Bingaman told the Los Angeles Times.

Monday afternoon Butte County’s biggest fire so far this year was contained. The fire was burning in a rural area of grasslands and steep hills.

The blaze has scorched a few 62,000 acres since erupting last week in the canyons and foothills along the inland flanks of California’s North Coast Ranges, quadrupling in size over the weekend.