California officials ordered some residents east of the city of Fresno to evacuate their homes as firefighters continued Friday to battle wildfires sparked by lightning and spreading to more than 10,000 acres.
The fires started from the more than 1,000 lightning strikes that struck eastern Fresno County in three hours on Monday, California’s fire department, Cal Fire, said. On Friday, a crew of more than 1,500 firefighters were battling three major fires and several smaller ones that left firefighters Fresno June Lightning Complexwhich threatened more than 900 homes and disrupted power and communications lines.
According to the agency, rising temperatures combined with low humidity expected over the next 72 hours could contribute to an increase in fire activity.
The fires were some of the largest wildfires have been burning in California during what has already been an unusually active year. Wildfires have burned more than 112,000 acres in the state this year, far outpacing the five-year average of 20,500 acres, Cal Fire said.
At around 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Cal Fire said the fires near Fresno were 37 percent contained.
Although the fires in Fresno have grown in size in recent days, their containment has improved. Firefighters have tried to extinguish some of the fires by surrounding them. According to Sergio Arellano, a spokesman for Cal Fire, this is a tactic to prevent the fires from spreading.
Arellano said firefighters will likely have to cover more ground at night because lower temperatures increase relative humidity.
“The containment lines are holding well,” he said, adding that he expected evacuation orders and warnings to be lifted within a day or two.
There have been no reports of fatalities, Cal Fire said.
The National Weather Service said an area of high pressure moving over the deserts from the southwest was pushing smoke from the fires toward the northeast. Dry and windy conditions were expected over the weekend, increasing the risk of grass fires across the region, the report said.
