by As firefighters attempted to limit the fires on Sunday in the face of dry, hot weather, hundreds of people were evacuated as wildfires in Central Oregon and California wine country expanded overnight.
The California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection, or Calfire, reported that as of early Sunday, the Pickett Fire in Napa County had spread to over 10 square miles and was 11% contained.
According to Jason Clay, spokesman for the Calfire Sonoma Lake-Napa Unit, the fire endangered about 500 houses near Aetna Springs and Pope Valley, forcing around 190 people to evacuate their homes and another 360 to be under evacuation warnings.
The fire, which started Thursday following a week of very hot weather, was being fought by more than 1,230 firemen supported by ten aircraft. Investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of the fire.
With temperatures predicted to reach dangerous levels throughout the weekend in Washington, Oregon, Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona, residents of the Western United States have been suffering from a heat wave that has sent several individuals to the hospital.
Since the fire started, Clay added, the weather has cooled, and Sunday’s high is predicted to reach 94 degrees. However, it was anticipated that the humidity would decrease throughout the day and that the afternoon breezes would increase.
“Since we’ve seen the fire activity pick up over the last three days, that’s been a driving factor in the afternoons,” Clay said, adding that assistance from all over California has been essential to our efforts.
The fire started in the same region as the much larger Glass Fire in 2020, which spread into Sonoma County and ultimately destroyed over 1,500 buildings and 105 square miles.
“The current fire is fueled by dry vegetation on steep slopes, some of which are dead and downed trees left over from the Glass Fire, and some of which are grass and brush that grew back and then dried out again,” Clay explained. “That fire was driven by wind.”
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According to the state Fire Marshal’s Office, the Flat Fire in Deschutes and Jefferson counties in Oregon had spread to about 34 square miles without any control and was posing a threat to almost 4,000 houses. An evacuation notice of some kind was in effect for almost 10,000 individuals.
The fire started on Thursday night and spread swiftly in the hot, windy weather. In a video uploaded to Facebook, fire authorities said they were monitoring isolated thunderstorms in Southern Oregon that might move north on Sunday.
Scientists claim that human-caused warming from burning fossil fuels like coal and gas is producing more extreme heat waves and droughts, which in turn lay the stage for more destructive wildfires, even though it is challenging to explicitly link a particular fire or weather event to climate change.
