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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Vivian Ho and Mario Koran in Oakland and Joanna Walters in New York

California: wildfires ravage state as 2 million face looming blackouts – as it happened

People drive on a freeway as the Tick fire burns in nearby Canyon Country in Santa Clarita, California.
People drive on a freeway as the Tick fire burns in nearby Canyon Country in Santa Clarita, California. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

A busy day ... and maybe a busier weekend

That does it for me here today as we shut down the blog on this Friday evening. It’s been a busy day, with firefighters battling blazes from the wine country north of San Francisco to northern Mexico.

As we head into the weekend, it’s worth noting that the confluence of weather elements, combined with potentially having to evacuate residents in the face of a power outage, could make for a pretty hairy few days. Winds are expected to pick up starting Saturday night, with speeds that some estimate could reach up to 80mph. In short, it’s a weather event that meteorologists are calling unprecedented.

“This is the kind of event that makes me personally nervous, as somebody who has friends and family living in the fire zones in the Bay Area, and I don’t say that about all the events,” Daniel Swain, climate scientist with UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told the Los Angeles Times.

“Hopefully, we get lucky and there are no major ignitions. But if they happen, it’s going to be really hairy Saturday night and Sunday. It’s looking really, really extreme.”

And here’s a quick look back at the afternoon before I sign off for the day:

  • My colleague Vivian Ho took us through what “containing” a fire actually entails – efforts that include “a lot of digging, pushing flames toward natural barriers like cliffsides, cutting down vegetation and sometimes setting more fire in holding lines to scorch the earth and prevent the uncontrollable wildfire from catching”.
  • Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has issued an emergency proclamation for Sonoma and Los Angeles counties for the Kincade fire and the Tick fire.
  • Later in the day he pledged $75m to help communities prepare for future wildfires and blackouts. The money can go toward equipment like generators or be used to improve infrastructure.
  • Pacific Gas and Electric is considering yet another massive power shutoff across 36 of the state’s 58 counties, starting Saturday evening and heading into Monday morning. Just like the one the took place earlier this month, this one will include parts of Oakland, Berkeley and the coast as well as the Sierra foothills.
  • A fire that sparked in San Diego county tore through the area so quickly that officials had to fly over the neighborhood and tell residents to evacuate the area over a loudspeaker.
  • Parts of Baja California, just across the Mexican border from San Diego, is also on fire, fanned by the same wind event driving fires in southern California. The Mexico Daily News reported firefighters had already responded to more than 100 fires by Friday afternoon.

Updated

The lights are back on for 99% of the customers who lost power in the latest planned power shutdown, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reports.

As of 5pm, the only customers who remained in the dark are those living in Sonoma county, where the Kincade fire has been burning since Wednesday night. PG&E says about 178,000 customers were impacted by the shutdown, including the Sierra Foothills, North Bay, San Mateo and Kern counties.

Here’s a timelapse video of Kincade fire.

Updated

California governor Gavin Newsom today pledged $75 m to help communities prepare for future blackouts and wildfires.

The grant funding can be used to purchase generators and generator connections, fuel storage or backup energy sources or to improve critical infrastructure. Partly because of climate change, both wildfires and blackouts are widely expected to recur, and the one-time $75 mn in funds could help communities offset costs as they prepare for future disruptions.

“PG&E failed to maintain its infrastructure and Californians are facing hardship as a result. For decades, they have placed greed before public safety,” Newsom said in a statement. “We must do everything we can to support Californians, especially those most vulnerable to these events. These funds will help local governments address these events and assist their most vulnerable residents.”

In a tweet, Newsom was a bit more pointed in his critique of PG&E.

“Decades of greed and mismanagement by PG&E have led us to this moment. Californians are infuriated -- I am too.

We just a launched $75 million fund to help communities across our state dealing with these power shutoffs,” he wrote on Twitter.

California isn’t suffering alone. Parts of Baja Calfornia, just across the border from San Diego, are ablaze, fanned by the same wind event fueling fires in southern California.

Mexico Daily News reported that in the last 48 hours, firefighters have responded to more than 100 fires in Tijuana alone, 19 of them forest fires, and three of them categorized as major.

Officials have closed schools in the municipalities of Tijuana, Playas de Rosarito and Tecate as a precautionary measure.

Updated

In a piece just published, my reporting colleagues Vivian Ho, Susie Cagle, Sam Levin and Joanna Walters team up to take a statewide look at the damage and fear caused by wildfires, including one that has forced the evacuation of about 50,000 residents in suburbs north of Los Angeles.

Among the highlights my colleagues’ story:

  • Kathryn Barger, a Los Angeles county supervisor, said on Friday that LA suburb Santa Clarita has undergone its largest evacuation ever. There, crews worked overnight to contain the Tick fire, which started on Thursday and has already charred 4,300 acres and threatens 15,000 homes and businesses. Images and videos posted on social media show flames shooting up residential hillsides, fanned by winds of up to 50mph.
  • Pacific Gas & Electric has announced it plans to shut off power across northern California over the weekend, when gusts of wind are expected to reach up to 75mph. More than 2 million people are expected to be affected by the blackouts.
  • California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, declared a local emergency to assist with battling the blazes.
  • Firefighters still face weather conditions that makes battling the blazes extremely challenging. Strong winds, low humidity and high temperatures of up to 90F have come together to create a weather event one meteorologist described as an “atmospheric hairdryer”.
  • For some residents, fleeing wildfires has become both gut-wrenching and routine. Sam Levin spoke with Brenda Taylor, a Santa Clarita resident who estimated that her family has had to evacuate eight or nine times in the last 20 years. “It has become the normal for us,” she said.

Updated

California has over the past two decades has experienced an upswing of large, dangerous fires – 15 of the 20 largest wildfires in state history have occurred since 2000 – and they’re most likely to happen at this time of the year, when vegetation is bone-dry and hot, gusty winds whip through the state.

The Washington Post has a good description of the way winds contribute to California’s wildfires.

This extreme weather event is occurring during the time of year when desiccating and damaging offshore winds tend to rage in parts of California.

In northern California, these winds are known as Diablo winds, while in southern California, they’re given a slightly less frightening name: Santa Ana winds. In both cases, they form from weather systems over and around the state that in a certain configuration can funnel air at high speeds through the narrow canyons around Los Angeles, for example, and from mountain peaks to valleys in California wine country.

As the air is compressed, it tends to heat up, leading to temperatures along the coastline well above average. Highs in the Los Angeles and San Diego metro areas on Thursday were into the 90s, and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar was the hottest spot in the Lower 48 states, with a high of 102 degrees.

And conditions could expected to worsen over the weekend, especially in northern California, where dangerously dry air will combine with strong winds that could reach up to 75mph.

Updated

Gavin Newsom, the California governor, this afternoon visited the area affected by the Kincade fire, north of Santa Rosa, where nearly 22,000 acres and at least 49 buildings have burned – and as of the governor’s visit the fire was only 5% contained.

PG&E, California’s biggest utility that’s already been held liable for sparking previous fires, says a broken jumper wire was found on a transmission tower near where the fire broke out.

Newsom said the area looked like a “war zone” and took note of the unpredictable way fires tear through communities.

Updated

Evacuations are underway in San Diego county, where a blaze firefighters have called the Miller fire has broken out. Helicopters are currently circling over the community telling residents over a loudspeaker to leave.

The fire started around 1pm and by 1.32pm Cal Fire said the fire was at six acres and burning in heavy fuels, NBC 7 San Diego reported.

The NBC 7 meteorologist Sheena Parveen said fast-moving, dry winds could could make the firefight more challenging.

“Right now is the worst of it. Things will be getting better as we head through the late afternoon hours and especially as we head into the evening,” Parveen said.

Thomas Shoots, a Cal Fire captain, said it’s especially important for those with compromised immune systems to evacuate early to avoid breathing in the smoke.

“When it comes to air quality, really – you don’t have to be in an evacuation order area to really experience and have issues. Anybody who already has a compromised immune system, already has trouble getting down to their house – those people, we want to evacuate early,” Shoots told NBC 7.

Updated

Mario Koran here, picking up where my colleague Vivian Ho left off.

Vivian, by the way, has been in the field for much of the week reporting on the fires from the ground. In all the coverage about power shutoffs and how they’ve been handled by the PG&E power company, one thing it’s easy to lose sight of is the fact that actually being stuck in the middle of a fire would be, well, completely terrifying.

Here’s a description of a story from yesterday, where Viv talked to folks camped out at a shelter near Geyserville, north of Santa Rosa, that helps put the fire in a more visceral perspective:

At the Healdsburg community center near Geyserville, which became a makeshift American Red Cross shelter on Thursday, evacuees milled around the outdoor spaces, checking their phones and waiting for news.

“I’m sleepwalking,” said Tina Tavares, 70. Tavares and her husband, Victor, woke to pitch-black chaos at 5.30am.

“You wake up and they’ve turned off the electricity and all of a sudden you don’t know where you’re going,” Tavares said. “You go into a wall and you’re feeling around because you can’t feel anything and you have somebody banging on your door saying, ‘Get out, get out!’

“The smoke was so thick you couldn’t see my hand,” she said. “All you could see was red, red, red, red. I just covered my mouth and got right into the car.”

Read the rest of the piece here.

Updated

Passing the blog on to my colleague Mario Koran. In the meantime, take a look at our slideshow of photos from the wildfires:

Pacific Gas and Electric is considering yet another massive power shutoff across 36 of the state’s 58 counties, starting Saturday evening and heading into Monday morning. Just like the one the took place earlier this month, this one will include parts of Oakland, Berkeley and the coast as well as the Sierra foothills.

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has issued an emergency proclamation for Sonoma and Los Angeles counties for the Kincade fire and the Tick fire.

Updated

Let’s take a look back at the power shutoffs that have been taking place around the state in hopes of preventing wildfires.

First, read my brilliant colleague Susie Cagle for some background on what exactly is going on with these power outages:

Long story short, California’s utility companies - in particular, Pacific Gas and Electric, the country’s largest investor-owned utility - have a history of sparking wildfires. They have decided to shut off power during high-fire weather in regions with high-fire risk.

These outages got national attention this month when they hit the Bay Area. Fair enough – there’s an irony in the tech-rich Silicon Valley and generally actually dollar-rich wine country existing without electricity. But there’s been talk that these outages affect only the privileged, and that’s just wrong. And that’s why I’m making all of you sit through this blogpost.

Yes, California is the fifth-largest economy in the world. Yes, new tech millionaires do street-park their Teslas and flaunt their wealth like it will never run out. But the Bay Area is only a small portion of the shutoff zones. And there were a number of previous outages that occurred around the state before the two massive ones that drew national attention this month.

In Butte county, one of the regions most affected by both wildfires and the power outages, the per capita income is $26,000. This was the county that was hit hard by the 2018 Camp fire, and here, 18.1% live in poverty.

In Lake county, which was hit hard by the Valley fire in 2015, the per capita income is $23,000. Here, 20.2% live in poverty.

“Not everybody can go out and get a generator,” 59-year-old Deanne Mediati told me in an interview earlier this month. “They’re expensive. These are the easy solutions everybody has, but until you’ve lived it, shut your mouth.”

Mediati lives in Grass Valley, where the per capita income is $27,000 and 26.3% live in poverty. She also has hypoxia, and each power outage means she has to use oxygen tanks instead of an oxygen concentrator – a costly expense.

So let this be a reminder that these outages definitely don’t just affect the privileged. “There’s kind of this myth that disasters affect everyone and they’re this great equalizer and that’s just absolutely not true,” said Samantha Montano, an assistant professor of emergency management and disaster science at the University of Nebraska Omaha – and in the case of the shutoffs, people with disabilities and lower income suffered the most.

“If you’re middle class and have money in the bank, losing a refrigerator worth of food isn’t great, but you can go out and replace that and be OK,” Montano said. “But a family living paycheck to paycheck, they’re going to be struggling to be able to replace that food that is lost. That is another example where we’re seeing a disproportional impact.”

Updated

My intrepid colleague Sam Levin is still on the scene of Tick fire evacuations in southern California, and he’s reporting on a crucial issue that often comes up during these disasters – what to do with evacuees’ pets.

When I was up north at an American Red Cross evacuation center for Kincade fire evacuees yesterday, Sonoma county authorities had the Cuddle Shuttle parked out front for small pets to get out of the heat and rest while their owners figured out what to do. Tina Tavares, 70, who fled her Geyserville home amid a cloud of smoke with her husband, Victor, and two chihuahua mixes, Jake and Savannah, made good use of the Cuddle Shuttle, putting her pups away while she and Victor caught their breath.

Updated

Hey all, Vivian Ho taking over the blog for now. Here’s a quick update on where everything stands:

The Kincade fire in the Sonoma county wine region in the north San Francisco Bay Area has now burned up 21,900 acres and destroyed 49 homes, businesses and other structures.

The Tick fire in the northern Los Angeles county community of Santa Clarita has now burned up 4,300 acres.

Both fires are only 5% contained – for those unfamiliar with wildfire terminology, containment means exactly what it sounds like. Firefighters try to establish a perimeter around the blaze to keep it from spreading. It’s tough, arduous work that requires more than just hoses and water – it’s a lot of digging, pushing flames toward natural barriers like cliffsides, cutting down vegetation and sometimes setting more fire in holding lines to scorch the earth and prevent the uncontrollable wildfire from catching. Containment can fluctuate – at one briefing the public information officer will say it’s 5% contained and then later in the day it will only be 3% –- that’s because these situations are incredibly fluid and despite the firefighters’ best efforts, wildfires will grow in size and affect containment percentages.

Updated

Early afternoon summary

The wildfires are still raging in northern and southern California and folks are in for an anxious Friday and a dangerous weekend.

I’m handing over from New York to my colleague in California, Vivian Ho, now, and she’ll take you though the afternoon.

Here are the main developments of note so far today:

  • California’s largest utility company, PG&E, admits it may have started the Kincade fire now raging in wine country. Its shares took a hit.
  • In southern California, residents of the Santa Clarita valley north of Los Angeles have spoken to the Guardian’s Sam Levin, there, about evacuating from the Tick fire, some by the skin of their teeth. Talk of the climate crisis is in the air.
  • San Francisco and area airports are likely to be affected by smoke blowing down from the Kincade fire.
  • Public schools in the Los Angeles unified school district are closed today, including all those in the San Fernando Valley.

Updated

The pink stuff

Here’s LA county fire department battling to contain the Tick fire.

And more smoke coming your way.

Updated

PG&E admits it may have ignited Kincade fire

California’s biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, on Friday admitted its electrical equipment may have ignited the ruinous wildfire spreading over the state’s wine country, despite blackouts imposed across the region to prevent blazes.

The disclosure came as firefighters simultaneously battled flames in both northern and southern California: the fire amid Sonoma County’s vineyards, called the Kincade fire and a wind-whipped blaze that destroyed homes near Los Angeles, in Tick Canyon in the Santa Clarita valley, labeled the Tick fire.

The fire near the northern California town of Geyserville has burned at least 49 buildings and 34 sq miles and prompted evacuation orders for some 2,000 people, the Associated Press writes.

It was driven by the strong winds that had prompted Pacific Gas & Electric to impose sweeping blackouts affecting a half-million people in northern and central California. Power was restored to most people by Thursday evening, PG&E said.

PG&E resorted to shutoffs after fallen power lines and other electrical equipment were blamed for several blazes in recent years that killed scores of people, burned thousands of homes and ran up billions of dollars in claims that drove the utility into bankruptcy.

The PG&E CEO, Bill Johnson, said it was too soon to know if the faulty equipment sparked the fire.

He said the tower had been inspected four times in the past two years and appeared to have been in excellent condition.

Investors were leery, though, and PG&E stock fell more than 20% during the day.

In shutting off the electricity, PG&E cut power to the distribution lines that supply homes, but not to its long-distance transmission lines.

High winds in northern California had died down on Friday morning, but they are expected to pick up over the weekend, with gusts of 40 to 60mph in many places. PG&E warned it may black out an even larger region.

The PG&E chief meteorologist, Scott Strenfel, said northern California could be in for the strongest offshore winds in years.

PG&E workers earlier this month, before the latest wildfires.
PG&E workers earlier this month, before the latest wildfires. Photograph: Ben Margot/AP

Updated

‘With global warming I do worry’

Large wildfires require a cocktail of conditions, such as favorable wind speed and direction, fuel, terrain and, of course, ignition, which can be as simple as a trailer throwing sparks by scraping on a road, my Guardian US environment reporter colleague Oliver Milman wrote in a report after the last bout of devastating wildfires in California.

Broadly speaking, however, the climate crisis is making conditions more conducive to wildfires in the American west. Of the 20 largest wildfires in California’s recorded history, 15 have occurred since 2000, at a time when forests have become drier and warmer.

Since 1970, temperatures in the west have increased by about double the global average, lengthening the western wildfire season by several months and drying out large tracts of forests, making them more fire-prone.

“Climate change is increasing the vulnerability of many forests to ecosystem changes and tree mortality through fire, insect infestations, drought and disease outbreaks,” a major climate assessment by the US government states.

Out in Santa Clarita this morning, our reporter in the field, Sam Levin, caught an echo from one evacuee, Jeanne Weiss.

Updated

‘We have everything that’s important to us here right now’

The Guardian’s LA correspondent, Sam Levin, rushed to the Tick fire zone this morning and has been speaking to people who escaped the flames by a squeak.

He popped into an evacuation center in Santa Clarita.

Updated

‘There was a wall of black smoke’

Updated

‘It was the strongest wind we’ve ever experienced’

People who have fled the Tick wildfire in the Santa Clarita Valley about 40 miles from Los Angeles have been talking to my reporter colleague on the spot, Sam Levin.

Brenda Taylor, 46, estimated that her family has had to evacuate eight or nine times in the last 20 years.

“It has become the normal for us,” she said, as her two dogs ran in circles and barked outside an evacuation center in Santa Clarita. “They get really stressed,” she told Sam Levin.

She said this was one of the closest calls she has ever experienced.

“The wind was very, very loud and aggressive,” she said. “You could see the flames. It looked like it was right there.”

She said she’s grown accustomed to fleeing fires.

“Yes this is a home, but it’s a house so let’s just get out,” she said, adding that she grabbed photos and her children’s diplomas. “I’ve just gotten used to it. This is life out here.”

Updated

‘Confident we can put a dent in this’

That’s the most optimistic lens the LA county fire department can put on the Tick wildfire raging now, which began in Tick Canyon (such a pretty name) and has spread “aggressively” in the Santa Clarita Valley north of Los Angeles in the last 24 hours.

The operations section chief Mike Inman just issued an update saying the fire’s rapid spread was hastened by 30mph winds and it was a 2am “significant wind event” today that caused it to jump the 14 Freeway on the south-eastern flank of the fire. There is also a northern flank as it spreads west.

Inman said the fire crews are battling on the ground but fire retardant issued from aircraft is what they expect will help to contain the fire on both flanks as the day goes on.

“We are confident we can put a dent in this,” he said.

Here’s a tweet of the operational update from just moments ago.

Updated

It’s the climate crisis...

Climate scientists warned for several days before the wildfires broke out in California that this would be a week of especially intense fire weather across the state, my colleague Susie Cagle writes.

The worse could yet be to come this weekend. Fire risk remains critical across much of southern California through Friday night, and wind gusts reaching up to 90mph are expected in the remote mountainous peaks in the north bay region from Saturday evening through Monday morning.

NBC meteorologist Rob Mayeda called the statewide weather event of especially strong winds and low humidity an “atmospheric hairdryer”.

"Then it got so bad"

At an evacuation center in Santa Clarita near the Tick fire, Marcia Cooper Marquez said she was in bed at midnight when she heard authorities on her street ordering mandatory evacuations.

“I was in bed thinking this will pass,” the fifth grade teacher tells my colleague Sam Levin minutes ago.

“For awhile everything was good, the winds had calmed. And then it got so bad.”
She hadn’t prepared a “to-go” bag, and in a panic grabbed as much jewelry as she could find, including some pieces her husband had made. She also took sentimental photos — and she grabbed ten library books.

“I’m a book lover and a teacher. I didn’t want them to burn,” she said, adding that she realized she forgot to grab important identification documents.

She said she was still waiting for news about her neighborhood, but was glad she was safe: “Last night was scary, because I didn’t know what was happening ... but I made it through the night.”
“I don’t know what is happening at my home,” she added.

Did utility company start the Kincade inferno now burning in California wine country?

Pacific Gas & Electric, the huge utility that provides power to a huge swath of northern California, is conducting an internal investigation into how the Kincade wildfire burning in Sonoma County began.

The utility company is not, at this time, taking responsibility for sparking the inferno on Wednesday night, which is still raging out of control today amid bone-dry conditions, high temperatures and strong seasonal winds.

PG&E was responsible for the deadliest wildfire in California history, last November, an investigation by the state fire agency Cal Fire found earlier this year.

The Camp fire, which killed 85 people and almost completely incinerated the town of Paradise, was sparked by transmission lines owned by Pacific Gas & Electric in the early morning of 8 November, 2018, investigators concluded. “Tinder dry vegetation” and high winds “caused extreme rates of spread”, Cal Fire said in a statement in May.

Since the Kincade fire began on Wednesday night, PG&E has filed a report with the California Public Utilities Commission, saying there was a malfunction in one of its transmission towers in the Geyserville area just before the fire started, the Washington Post has just reported.

The fires currently burning in northern and southern California are not on the scale at this stage of the appalling and deadly infernos that fried huge parts of the state in 2017 and 2018.

The current blazes continue to worsen dangerously, however, as firefighters battle to bring them under control amid erratic, dry winds.

US-FIRE-POWER-California-wildfires-weatherA sign calling for PG&E to turn the power back on is seen on the side of the road during a statewide blackout in Calistoga, California, on October, 10, 2019 - Rolling blackouts affected millions of Californians earlier this month as Pacific Gas & Electric switched off power to an unprecedented number of households to try to curb fire risks. More power cut-offs are in prospect this weekend.
US-FIRE-POWER-California-wildfires-weather
A sign calling for PG&E to turn the power back on is seen on the side of the road during a statewide blackout in Calistoga, California, on October, 10, 2019 - Rolling blackouts affected millions of Californians earlier this month as Pacific Gas & Electric switched off power to an unprecedented number of households to try to curb fire risks. More power cut-offs are in prospect this weekend. Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

Here is my colleague Alastair Gee’s report on PG&E this spring.

Updated

Airports in the Bay Area set to be affected

Reports are coming in that San Francisco airport could start to be affected by smoke from the Kincade Fire as early as 11AM local time today.

Oakland and San Jose airports are also expected to have problems today, with the prospect of them worsening as the afternoon proceeds.

We’ll bring you more on this asap.

San Fransisco airport last month
San Fransisco airport last month Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Here’s a tweet with air traffic control-related meteorological chat, about expected problems with visibility at the airports today.

Updated

Evacuation orders remain in effect in Sonoma County

Sonoma County sheriff Mark Essick addressed a rumor that had been circulating on social media that evacuations orders had been lifted. “That is not accurate. All evacuations orders and warnings remain in effect,” Essick said, according to this report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Tankers dropped fire retardant all afternoon yesterday on the Kincade Fire around Geyserville
Tankers dropped fire retardant all afternoon yesterday on the Kincade Fire around Geyserville Photograph: Neal Waters/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Red Flag warnings for 18 million

The National Weather Service in the Los Angeles area notes that Red Flag Warnings, which notify firefighting and land management agencies that conditions are ideal for wildfires to start and spread rapidly, will remain in effect for Ventura County and Los Angeles County all day.

Meanwhile, in northern California, around 2,000 people have been under evacuation order as a result of the Kincade fire, around Geyserville, and no new evacuations are expected there this hour.

Updated

Tick Fire worsening near Los Angeles - 40,000 under evacuation order

As more than 1,500 firefighters struggle to contain the two main wildfires raging north of San Francisco and just outside Los Angeles right now, tens of thousands of people have already been evacuated and, as the infernos worsen amid powerful, dry winds, thousands more have been waking up today to the prospect that they, too, may have to evacuate.

The Los Angeles County fire department is reporting that the so-called Tick Fire in the Santa Clarita Valley, which sprang into life just after 1PM local time yesterday on Tick Canyon Road, is nowhere near contained and jumped a main road artery overnight, the 14 Freeway that runs east-west past Santa Clarita before joining Interstates 5 and 405 that enter Los Angeles from the north-west.

Early today, the fire department is reporting erratic winds up to 45mph and temperatures in the 90s F in the region, with low humidity - excessively dangerous fire conditions.

Approximately 40,000 residents are currently under evacuation orders and the authorities are working on where people can evacuate. Some 10,000 structures are threatened and so far there are no reports of injuries either to the public or firefighters.

Kincade, Tick and many more

The two largest wildfires raging in California right now are the Kincade fire Sonoma County in wine country north of the San Francisco Bay Area and west of state capital Sacramento, and the Tick fire just to the north of Los Angeles.

There are many smaller fires raging and Time magazine has a report that includes a map monitoring the locations of the different blazes, with live updates.

So far, the two main fires have burned up around 30 square miles in total. They are not under control and are getting worse.

Cows stand on a field as fire approaches them atop a hillside during the Kincade fire near Geyserville, California, after dark last night. The fire, in Sonoma County, kicked up Wednesday night, quickly growing from a blaze of a few hundred acres into an un-contained 10,000-acre inferno
Cows stand on a field as fire approaches them atop a hillside during the Kincade fire near Geyserville, California, after dark last night. The fire, in Sonoma County, kicked up Wednesday night, quickly growing from a blaze of a few hundred acres into an un-contained 10,000-acre inferno Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

LA area schools closed today

All Los Angeles Unified School District campuses in the San Fernando Valley will be closed Friday due to smoke and fire concerns.

Community, Roscomare, Topanga, Valley View, Wonderland and Elementary schools will also be closed, the district announced, and the LA Times reported today.

The Tick fire, on the outskirts of Santa Clarita, just north of LA, has accelerated and, fed by the Santa Ana winds, jumped the 14 Freeway earlier today, rampaging through dry undergrowth.

Sky Cornell, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, urged residents to evacuate when directed by police and fire officials.

“We know people want to stay, but really that does nothing but hurt you and us,” he said. “We need the water pressure and we need the roads clear to be able to get in there.”

The National Weather Service in Oxnard reported that: “The strongest Santa Ana winds will continue to be focused across Los Angeles and Ventura counties Friday morning, with gusts of up to 65 mph,” the weather service said in a tweet. Winds and gusts will be strongest in the mountains, the tweet said, and the weather brings with it “very rapid fire spread and extreme fire behavior possible with new ignitions.”

Firefighters hose down a burning house during the Tick Fire in Agua Dulce near Santa Clarita, earlier today.Around 40,000 people have so far been told to flee the fire.
Firefighters hose down a burning house during the Tick Fire in Agua Dulce near Santa Clarita, earlier today.
Around 40,000 people have so far been told to flee the fire. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

Smoke from wildfire spreading into Bay Area, worsening

Latest smoke forecasts from the Kincade Fire in northern California say that smoke is spreading into the Bay Area this morning and will become more widespread this afternoon.

The worst of the smoke is expected to sweep down over San Francisco by late morning and into the afternoon.

My west coast colleague in Oakland, Susie Cagle, reported overnight that: California is in the middle of a dire stretch of especially hot, windy weather that’s driving wild fires both small and large across the northern and southern regions of the state.

In Sonoma county wine country in the north San Francisco Bay Area, the Kincade fire burned more than 16,000 acres in and around the small town of Geyserville, and destroyed 49 structures.

Electric utility PG&E had begun rolling blackouts in order to reduce fire risk in the area before the fire ignited, but told state regulators Thursday that one of its still-powered high voltage transmission towers broke near the suspected ignition point shortly before the fire’s start.

Fires sparked across the southland throughout Thursday evening and afternoon.

In the northern Los Angeles county community of Santa Clarita, the Tick fire forced upwards of 40,000 people from their homes and burned roughly 3,950 acres.

County supervisor Kathryn Barger said at least six residences had been destroyed. “But that number may rise,” she told reporters at a press conference. “We cannot let our guard down.”

Updated

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10 Photos of Madelyn Cline — Luca Doncic's Alleged Affair Partner Amid Custody Battle with Ex Anamaria Goltes
Madelyn Cline, star of Netflix's 'Outer Banks', is rumored to be linked with NBA star Luka Dončić. Explore the speculation surrounding his relationship with his ex-partner Anamaria Goltes and the viral buzz online.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
77 Times Older People Failed At Being On The Internet But Provided Some Comedy Gold (New Pics)
The internet has changed a lot since its launch in 1983, and if you’ve spent enough time online, it might feel like you’ve already seen everything there is to see. However, some users still approach it from a refreshingly different — and, most importantly, honest — perspective. And more often…
Bored Panda
Bored Panda
Dark horse defeats pop star Katy Perry in name battle
Pop star Katy Perry has lost a years-long legal battle to an Australian fashion designer after she was played Hot N Cold by the justice system.
AAP
AAP
Want to Smell Like Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy? Grab These 7 Fragrances Before They Sell Out
Her rumored go-to is out of stock, but I found the perfect alternative.
Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Discover Every Louis Vuitton Monogram Bag Dominating the Fall 2026 Fashion Show's Front Row
See every monogram celebrities carried.
Marie Claire
Marie Claire
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