“We have a firefight before us and the wind is going to make this very difficult,” Keith Wade, a spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), said.
Caldor Fire, which ravaged dozens of homes in northern Sierra Nevada, has already closed down 46-mile (74 km) of Interstate 50. This route links Sacramento with Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
After debris from the fire fell onto the highway, the highway was closed. Red flag warnings were also issued for winds gusting to 40 mph (65 km/h) on Saturday.
Crews are fighting against the fire by ensuring that they have a safe route.
Eric Schwab, a Cal Fire operations chief, stated that “We’re going all in to holding the fire south”.
The fire’s western side was a progress made by firefighters who burned vegetation to stop the flames reaching Pollock Pines. Fire officials stated that crews were protecting cabins within dense forests on the northeastern side.
Caldor Fire now has consumed 130 square miles (310 km) of land. More than 1,500 firefighters were fighting it in heavy timber and rugged terrain.
This blaze was just one of a dozen California wildfires that have ravaged Northern California. It destroyed at least 700 homes in the Sierra Nevada communities Greenville and Grizzly Flats alone.
Fires that erupted mainly in the north of the state have destroyed nearly 1.5 million acres or 2,300 miles (6,000 km) of land and sent smoke all the way to the East Coast. The fires were set in extremely dry grass, brush, and forest due to two years of drought that was likely exacerbated with climate change.
Many homes were still at risk in remote communities in scenic forests, and evacuation orders are still in place for tens of thousands.
The fire threat has forced the closure of nine national forests in the area.
The massive Dixie Fire, which was located to the northwest of Caldor Fire, continued expanding. New evacuations were also ordered including Taylorsville. Five weeks later, the fire that raged 175 miles (282 km) northeast of San Francisco became the second-largest in state historical records and blackened an area twice as large as Los Angeles.
According to weather forecasts, a storm system will be bringing winds and little rain through Northern California until early next week. There will be increased fire dangers. In recent days, dozens of fires erupted but were quickly put out.
The Cache Fire was an exception. It was a small, but swiftly moving grass fire that destroyed at least 56 homes and nearly decimated a mobile home park.
Some people had to abandon their pets when they fled the flames.
Emily Crum, North Bay Animal Services’ animal control officer, was surprised when she looked for abandoned pets around Clearlake.
She saw a black dog on a charred lot.
“I saw her lying there. Crum stated, “I thought she was dead.” “Then, she began wagging her tail.”
Crum stated that Sammy, a mutt, was not injured despite being tied to a boat trailer.
Also, cats, goats, and chickens were saved.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, California is one of twelve Western states with 99 active fires as of Friday.
The West has seen an increase in fires, which have made it nearly a year-round season and put a strain on firefighters. According to Anthony Scardina (deputy regional forester, U.S. Forest Service), fire patterns used to migrate in seasons from Southwest to Rockies, then to the Pacific Northwest, and then to California. This allowed fire crews to move between places.
Scardina stated, “But the problem it all of those seasons start to overlap.”
