A dangerous fire that has claimed at least one building in Corona is still raging as firefighters continue to try to save hundreds of threatened homes in an evacuated neighborhood. The wildfire that broke out on the north side of Corona City Airport has grown to 1,000 acres and is about 20% contained, but homes and other structures are still under threat until winds ease, according to the Corona Fire Department.
Tuesday at 10: 30 p.m., the Lake Napa Unit of CAL FIRE reported that the Gold Fire had burned more than 22,000 acres and was 90% contained, while the Hog Fire was 93% contained after burning nearly 10,000 acres. The LNU Lightning Complex fire was still 0% contained, according to the Cal Fire website. By Tuesday evening, the Silver Fire and Gold Fire were 90 percent contained, with the Gold Fire burning more than 22,000 acres, while the Pig Fire was contained after burning more than 32,500 acres and the LLU Blitz Complex Fire is still zero.
The eastern part of the fire enters the burn scar of the Ranch2 fire and burns downhill, creating less intense fire behavior for firefighters. The eastern version of the fire, the Silver Fire, will penetrate and burn and enter the burning scar of the Ranch 2 fire, which has produced less intense fire behavior for firefighters, according to Cal Fire.
This shows that the high risk of wildfires in California is still spreading, even though the weather has finally subsided in the fall. Winds are expected to be even stronger than Monday, when gusts of up to 60 mph were measured in Los Angeles County and parts of Fremont Canyon. Bad air increases the risk of forest fires in areas where the fires have been burning for months before they have even started, and limits the already limited engagement with the outside world.
However, the Bobcat fire continues to burn north of where it has been for the last 80 years and this has helped to slow the progress of the fire. But it is still burning in the north, where the fire has raged and spread most fiercely in recent years. The Bob Catchers Fire, however, is burning farther north than it has been in its recent history, in a remote area of the San Bernardino National Forest in California's Sierra Nevada. A combination of strong winds, low humidity and high temperatures has helped slow the progress of the fire, but not enough to slow it down.
The third-largest fire in Northern California is the August Lightning Complex Fire, which raged in the San Bernardino National Forest north of the city of Redding.
Smoke from the California fires will also affect residents of the Bay Area, as it is widespread and persistent, according to the National Weather Service.
Orange County Fire Department officials estimate that the Bond fire has burned 7,200 acres since December 3. Mr Fires said the air for the fire was thin as several fires were burning in the area. Normally, a wildfire of this size burning in the region would have a firefighting capacity of about 1,000 to 2,500 firefighters, he said. In a sign of how overwhelmed Cal Fire is with the current fires, three times as many firefighters were deployed to fight the Kincade fire in Orange County and the LNU complex in San Bernardino County as last week to fight the Nellis fire, which is more than four times the size, according to the California Fire Department.
The burning flames of the Bond fire in Orange County, California, U.S., December 3, 2016. The blaze burning in a fire at the LNU complex in San Bernardino County on December 4, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. A blaze burns in the Kincade fire on the south side of the Los Alamitos National Wildlife Refuge in Southern California on December 3.
A few kilometers further north, a fire near the city's Corona airport paralyzed state road 71 and forced residents to flee. The Cal Fire Corona fire department determined that the reopening was safe after most fire activity had subsided, except for some damage to the roadway's edge. A few hours later, when most of the fires in the area are subsiding and the 71 Corona Freeway is damaged at its edges, Corona Fire Department officials decide that the roads can be reopened.
Firefighters were focused on maintaining protection at the south end of the Bobcat fire as winds pushed the fire northeast today. But fast-arriving firefighters were able to contain the flames in Corona, Anaheim and Chino Hills, keeping the damage to a minimum while more than 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes. Forced evacuations have been ordered for the city of Corona and the area west of Interstate 5, where about 1,000 people live. Voluntary evacuation was ordered for the rest of West Corona and a small area east of I-5 near Corona Airport.
