Dropping temperatures and rising humidity will give firefighters a brief window to gain more ground against three large wildfires burning in Southern California, authorities said Sunday.
“It helps tremendously,” said Capt. Steve Concialdi, serving as public information officer for the airport fire in Orange and Riverside counties, where overnight humidity levels exceeded 90% in some areas Saturday.
“It helps us strengthen our containment lines and firefighters can work longer in these cooler temperatures,” Concialdi said. “We don’t get heat-related illnesses.”
But this climate change also has its advantages and disadvantages.
“We are expecting quite strong winds across [Monday] “At night and also at higher elevations, which could present some issues,” said Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
Even though a layer of moist air in the marine layer thickens, reaching 4,500 feet by Sunday, conditions above remain dry. The upper peaks could see wind gusts of up to 45 mph, Lewis said, which means cooler air for valley residents but poses a challenge for fire crews. Lewis said the marine layer, with its cool, moist air, could deepen to 6,000 feet by Monday.
In San Bernardino County, the Line Fire spread slowly over the weekend, but the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said humidity and the possibility of light rain late Sunday should give firefighters a chance to extinguish hot spots and shore up control lines that surround a third of the 36,000-acre blaze. The fire was 36% contained as of Sunday afternoon.
Paul Faulstick, 67, walks among the ruins of his friend David Mix’s property, destroyed in the bridge fire along Bear Canyon Road in Mount Baldy on Thursday. “It was like Armageddon,” David Mix, 50, said of the fire. “That place is like family to me. I had to know if she was gone,” Mix said.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
The Bridge Fire, which is nearly 50,000 acres in the San Gabriel Mountains of San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, continues to spread north and west, but the agency said firefighters are maintaining lines to the south and east, though the Mount Baldy area remains under evacuation orders. The fire is only 9% contained.
In the Santa Ana Mountains, the Airport Fire was slow to grow Saturday night, growing to less than 24,000 acres and allowing ground crews to reach hard-to-reach areas around Trabuco Canyon and establish fire lines. To date, 115 homes and three businesses have been destroyed, and 12 firefighters and two civilians have been injured. The fire is 19 percent contained.
Firefighting plans called for teams of experienced firefighters to be flown in and dropped off in these remote areas, setting up camps from which they would work for days to put out whatever was smoldering. “If the wind changes or the Santa Ana [wind] “If the situation deteriorates, we want to make sure all of these hot spots are extinguished,” Concialdi said.
With further ground gains, Riverside County on Saturday lowered evacuation orders in some areas to warning status.
Drought conditions continue to prevail at higher elevations. State officials said the Line Fire near Big Bear Lake continues to be active at higher elevations. In the Airport Fire, Modjeska Peak remains dry, and state officials warned that burning vegetation above 4,000 feet still has the potential to flare up and roll downhill to ignite unburned vegetation.
The high pressure system that encased Southern California in a heat dome last week has been displaced by a weak, dying cold front. Local weather forecasts called for slightly below-normal temperatures, heavy nighttime fog and high humidity, with a chance of light rain through Monday. Light rain is again in the forecast for Wednesday before the National Weather Service forecasts for temperatures to rise slightly above normal again.
Air pollution advisories remained in effect in all four counties, with smoke choking the air with fine particles. The South Coast Air Quality Management District advised residents to limit outdoor activities.
An airport firefighting helicopter dropped water near Santiago Peak on Tuesday. The airport fire has burned more than 3,600 hectares.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
