Some people just west of Vacaville – a town of about 100,000 between San Francisco and Sacramento – were ordered to evacuate as fires burned in the hills.
“There are a lot of places people are trying to get out, and we are working on our way to them,” a Solano County Sheriff’s dispatcher told CNN. The number of people affected was not immediately clear.
This blaze is one of dozens of fires burning in parts of the state. They come amidst a brutal heat wave and power outages – both intentional and unintentional – as the power grid struggles to meet demand.
The Vacaville area fire is part of the LNU complex fire – a series of wildfires that have burned more than 32,000 acres in Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties, north of the Bay Area state and county officials said.
Just west of Vacaville, evacuations were ordered early Wednesday for the entire Pleasants Valley Road and its connecting streets, as well as the English Hills area, the town’s fire department said.
on Twitter.
Excessive heat
The fires come as California battles what some experts call historic weather conditions. Nearly 45 million people across the West are on an excessive heat warning or heat advisory on Wednesday. High temperatures, wind gusts and low humidity are expected, conditions that will likely contribute to the significant spread of new and existing forest fires.
More than two dozen wildfires burned across the state early Wednesday, charring tens of thousands of acres in total. In northern California, where some fires were started by lightning strikes and burned more than 145,000 acres, evacuations were ordered in several counties as fires threatened structures.
Evacuation orders across California
In Monterey County, well south of San Jose, evacuations were issued for the Carmel fire, burning Tuesday southeast of the village of Carmel Valley, CNN affiliate KSBW reported. The Carmel fire burned about 1,200 acres, according to CAL FIRE, and is not at all under control.
Late Tuesday, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office announced a
compulsory evacuation due to another fire, the river fire. The river fire has burned over 4,500 acres and is about 7% contained, according to CAL FIRE. The two fires are in Monterey County, the department said, about 90 miles from San Jose.
California Fire Officials Announcement
no more evacuations Tuesday night for the largest set of wildfires in the state, the SCU Lightning Complex.
According to the department, that’s about 20 separate flames burning over steep and rugged terrain, fueled by extreme heat and low humidity. More than 35,000 acres were charred and two people were injured, firefighters said.
And Wednesday’s temperatures, which fire officials say are expected to hit triple digits, won’t help.
“Firefighters are looking to take advantage of cooler temperatures tonight to build and strengthen containment lines in all areas,” the department said Tuesday evening. The fires are contained at about 4%.
Evacuation orders have been issued for parts of Alameda County and Contra Costa County.
37000 without electricity
Meanwhile, more than 37,000 customers were without power statewide, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Energy (LADWP) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) told CNN on Tuesday night.
“The extreme demand for heat and power has caused blackouts in parts of Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti wrote.
on Twitter. LADWP, the nation’s largest municipal utility with a total of 1.5 million customers in the city of Los Angeles, said about 12,000 of those customers were in darkness as of Tuesday night.
“The outages we are experiencing tonight are related to energized equipment in the field, transformers and distribution stations becoming overheated, which has led to many localized outages,” said a spokesperson for LADWP. “Our crews are there and will progress overnight.”
Separately, PG&E said 25,717 of its customers are also without power in northern and central California.
7 heat records broken
With an excessive heat wave statewide, California weather officials said at least seven temperature records have been broken.
Burbank broke its previous 1986 record, hitting 109 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, while Paso Robles broke an over 50-year record with an incredible 111 degrees on Tuesday. Camarillo, Long Beach and Woodland Hills were also included in the record
areas. In a warning on Twitter, the National Weather Service said “summer is hot, but it’s different.”
“These are record temperatures in what is generally one of the hottest times of the year,” the service said.
said. “These are dangerous conditions that must be taken seriously to prevent heat-related illnesses.”
Historic fire burns parts of Colorado
California is not the only state facing the spread of wildfires. In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday announced he would take executive action to reduce the risk of fires in the state as several wildfires remain out of control.
At least four fires have already burned over 130,000 acres.
The largest, the Pine Gulch fire, was caused by lightning strikes and charred 87,000 acres and was 7% contained by the end of Tuesday.
According to CNN affiliate KMGH, it was the third largest wildfire in state history.
The Grizzly Creek fire, which is approximately 27,000 acres in size, is 4% contained.
