Jul 1, 2008 1:30 pm US/Pacific
New Evacuations Ordered As California Fires Grow
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS) ―
Authorities on Tuesday ordered new evacuations along a strip of coast near Big Sur where firefighters were battling one of the hundreds of lightning-sparked wildfires across Northern California.
The mandatory evacuation order covered a roughly 15-mile stretch along state Highway 1 where firefighters planned a controlled burn to help block a wildfire that has blackened about 74 square miles, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Rolf Larsen.
Soggy weather blanketed much of the Northern California coast with fog and light drizzle Tuesday morning, but it did little to aid firefighters because the moisture did not extend inland or up to the high elevations where most of the wildfires are located, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Tentinger.
The fire near the tourist community of Big Sur started in the Los Padres National Forest just over a week ago and was caused by lightning. It has continued to grow this week and as of Tuesday was just 3 percent contained — the same percentage as last week — although it has expanded away from populated areas.
About 200 people were ordered to evacuate an area south of Big Sur. Occupants of at least 75 homes evacuated from the same general area earlier, and have not been allowed to return.
A second fire in the Los Padres National Forest, farther inland and in rugged, mountainous terrain, has burned 127 square miles since it started about three weeks ago, Larsen said. It was 95 percent contained.
"They're making headway because winds are rather calm," Larsen said of firefighters combating the second fire.
The number of wildfires in Northern California has forced firefighters to allocate their resources carefully, focusing on communities in the paths of flames, sometimes allowing other blazes to chew through unpopulated forest land.
"It's like eating an elephant — you've got to eat it one bite at a time," said Jason Kirchner, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. "We have to take a step back, figure out where the best place is to make a stand and sometimes wait for the fire to come to us in those situations."
This year is extraordinary for the number of active fires, Kirchner said. The weekend of June 21 had 1,200 fires — a number Forest Service officials said appeared to be an all-time record in California.
On Monday, the Forest Service put the figure at about 600, attributing the reduction to its tactic of attacking small fires first, and to significant assistance from other states and Canada. However, state officials counted more than 1,000 ongoing blazes. The source of the discrepancy was apparently a different counting method.
Tuesday morning brought relatively light wind to regions of Northern California where harsh terrain has hampered efforts to battle a blaze in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Temperatures were expected to return to the 80s in the afternoon.
Crews managed to increase their containment of the forest's 55-square-mile fire to 36 percent by Monday evening. A smaller blaze in the nearby Trinity Alps Wilderness, a popular summer hiking spot, was only 2 percent contained after charring more than 4 square acres.
Two wildfires choked parts of the Sierra Nevada foothills, sending up plumes of smoke that darkened patches of the 100-mile stretch along the Interstate 80 corridor between Sacramento and Reno.
Officials said there was a possibility of rain in far northern California this week. But the changing weather pattern also could bring new lightning and high wind, said John Heil, a Forest Service spokesman.
Even a modest rain storm — highly unusual in July — would do little to diminish the likelihood of a long, tough fire season, Heil said.
"Unless it rains, and we get some really good rainfall, you can pretty much expect it to be here right through October," he said.
Elsewhere, a wildfire that forced the evacuation of dozens of residents in a northern Arizona community had charred about 5,300 acres — or more than 2 square miles — as of Tuesday morning. Prescott National Forest spokeswoman Debbie Maneely said crews had not been able to control any of the blaze since it broke out late Saturday near the mountain community of Crown King.
Three houses and four other buildings had been destroyed, Maneely said Monday.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
