Wildfire in California prompts evacuations in multiple counties

Sharjah 24 – WAM: A wildfire erupted in central California over the weekend quickly spread to over 1,000 acres (4.04 square kilometres) as of Monday and prompted evacuations in multiple counties.

According to the Cal Fire, the blaze, dubbed Silver Fire, was ignited at 2:11 pm local time Sunday in Inyo County near the state border with Nevada and quickly grew to 1,000 acres in six hours.

The fire spread to 1,250 acres

On Monday morning, the fire spread to 1,250 acres (5.06 square kilometres) with zero containment, Cal Fire said, noting strong winds and gusts reaching up to 35 mph (56.3 kph) fuelled the fire, which "created hazardous conditions, grounding some firefighting aircraft and complicating containment efforts."

"The winds are very erratic," Cal Fire spokesperson Chloe Castillo said, "One minute they're pushing north, the next they're going east." Evacuations were ordered for about 800 homes in Laws of Inyo County, Chalfant in Mono County and the White Mountain Estates neighbourhoods, and a stretch of about 50 kilometres of US Highway 6 was closed.