Six helicopters were making drops on the fire, aided by 22 engines on the ground. Smoke shut down a portion of Highway 28 between Hot Springs and Elmo because of the thick smoke, according to the Montana Department of Transportation.Ĭrews from several different agencies were fighting the fire today, including the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Fire Division. The agency estimated it would take nearly a month to contain the blaze. In western Montana, the wind-driven Elmo fire forced evacuations of homes and livestock as it raced across grass and timber, according to The National Interagency Fire Center, based in Idaho.
I hope for everyone’s sake this dies down but it’s looking like it’s going to get worse.” Usually that happens with a fire during the day but not at night. “It went from a fairly cool breezy night to hot, dry hurricane-force winds. “The terrifying part for us was the wind velocity,” she said. On their way out, they came across hikers on the Pacific Coast Trail fleeing to safety. “I thought it was going to rip the roof top tent off of our truck. “These were some of the worst winds I’ve ever been in and we’re used to big fires,” she said. Intense heat from the fire had sent up a massive pyrocumulonimbus cloud, which can produce its own weather system including winds and thunderstorms, Grayber said. The sky was glowing with strikes of lightening in the clouds, while ash was blowing at them, though they were in Oregon, about 10 miles away. Dacia Grayber, who is a firefighter, was camping with her husband, who is also in the fire service, near the California state line when gale-force winds awoke them just after midnight. Forest Service closed a 110-mile section of the trail from the Etna Summit to the Mt. The Pacific Coast Trail Association urged hikers to get to the nearest town while the U.S. Smoke from the fire caused the closure of portions of Highway 96. Over 100 homes were ordered evacuated and authorities were warning people to be on high alert. Automated calls were being sent to land phone lines as well because there were areas without cell phone service. McKinney’s explosive growth forced crews to shift from trying to control the perimeter of the blaze to trying to protect homes and critical infrastructure like water tanks and power lines, and assist in evacuations in California’s northernmost county of Siskiyou.ĭeputies and law enforcement were knocking on doors in the county seat of Yreka and the town of Fort Jones to urge residents to get out and safely evacuate their livestock onto trailers. With lightning predicted over the next few days, resources from all over California were being brought in to help fight the region’s fires, he said. “It’s a very dangerous fire - the geography there is steep and rugged, and this particular area hasn’t burned in a while,” he said.Ī small fire was also burning nearby, outside the town of Seiad, Stokesberry said. It was 17% contained.Ī significant build-up of vegetation was fueling the McKinney fire, said Tom Stokesberry, a spokesman with the U.S. Roughly 200 miles to the south, Idaho residents remained under evacuation orders as the Moose Fire in the Salmon-Challis National Forest charred more than 67.5 square miles in timbered land near the town of Salmon. Meanwhile in Montana, the Elmo wildfire nearly tripled in size to more than 11 square miles within a few miles of the town of Elmo. It also allows “firefighting resources from other states to assist California crews in battling the fires,” according to a statement from the governor’s office. The proclamation allows Newsom more flexibility to make emergency response and recovery effort decisions and access federal aid. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency today as the fire intensified. “It’s continuing to grow with erratic winds and thunderstorms in the area and we’re in triple digit temperatures,” said Caroline Quintanilla, a spokeswoman at Klamath National Forest.Ĭalifornia Gov.
The fire burned down at least a dozen residences and wildlife was seen fleeing the area to avoid the flames. In California’s Klamath National Forest, the fast-moving McKinney fire, which started Friday, went from charring just over 1 square mile to scorching as much as 62 square miles today in a largely rural area near the Oregon state line, according to fire officials. SAN DIEGO > Wildfires in California and Montana exploded in size overnight amid windy, hot conditions and were quickly encroaching on neighborhoods, forcing evacuation orders for over 100 homes today, while an Idaho blaze was spreading.
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