California has not caught a break this year. Mandatory evacuations have affected nearly 70,000 residents in Orange County alone thanks to two new wildfires. Both the Silverado Fire and Blue Ridge have incinerated nearly 30,000 acres combined in less than 48 hours.
What We Know:
- These recent fires have benefited from relatively low humidity and high wind conditions. Since Monday. They have destroyed nearly a dozen homes at this point and threaten thousands more. These latest fires add to an already historic season in Southern California where over 4 million acres have burned so far. According to Cal Fire, 31 people have died and 10,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed this year.
- Aside from California, another 8.5 million acres have burned so far this year in states such as Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, which have also killed dozens.
- Extreme fire weather is expected to continue in California with high winds up to 50 mph with the potential to turn the flames into Southern California communities such as Chino Hills and Yorba Linda. About 20 miles south of the Blue Ridge fire is the Silverado Fire and it has burned over 13,000 acres near Irvine since Monday stated an incident update from Cal Fire. The origins of the fires are still under investigation and the Silverado fire is only 5% contained.
Crews committed to the #BlueRidgeFire are working hard to clean up some areas of fire retardant drops in @YorbaLindaCity. Right behind the rig you can see where the edge of the fire came close to property lines. pic.twitter.com/6Q77Sm4lxp
— OCFA PIO (@OCFA_PIO) October 29, 2020
- There has yet to be any loss or damage of any structures in these areas as 1,200 fire personnel work to climate this threat. Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy said in a news conference of Tuesday that two unnamed firefighters were critically injured in fires and are “fighting for their lives”.
- As far as schools in the area are concerned, the Irvine Unified School District chose to cancel school Wednesday “due to the ongoing and significant impacts of the Silverado Fire throughout the city of Irvine,” read an update on their website.
- At this point, some evacuations were lifted for parts of Irvine, but tens of thousands of residents remain on watch and are still under orders, Orange County Fire Authority PIO Captain Jason Fairchild told CNN.
The regions that are still under orders are Yorba Linda, Chino Hills, Brea Hills, the Sleepy Hollow area of Brea, and Olinda Ranch. Gov. Gavin Newsom also recently announced the state of California has obtained federal funds to aid in the Blue Ridge and Silverado fire dilemma.
