Erskine Fire in Kern County, Calif., June 2016
The fire three hours north of Los Angeles—dubbed the Erskine fire—had spread to an estimated 5,000 acres (20 square kilometers), prompting the mobilization of hundreds of firefighters, the news website Inciweb said.
The authorities closed several highways and evacuated two schools and a retirement home in the agricultural and oil region after the blaze started Thursday afternoon due to unknown causes.
The blaze is "extremely dangerous, extremely volatile," Kern County Fire Captain Tyler Townsend told the Los Angeles Times. "It's one of the most devastating I've ever seen."
California is experiencing a record five-year drought. Trees and brush are at risk of igniting from the smallest spark.
Temperatures that climbed to more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) earlier this week increased the risk of fire.
More than fourteen large fires are currently raging in the United States, mostly in the southwest, where a record heat wave left at least five dead earlier this week.
Source: AFP
in California.
Just yesterday a fire got started in my neighborhood when a mower blade hit a rock and the spark light the tinder dry grasses on fire...just like that.
Luckily a water delivery guy was on site by accident and he started hosing things down. Thankfully there is a fire station close by too and the firemen were there very fast.
Could have gotten out of control very fast.