By Malia Wollan
The Associated Press
TRINITY COUNTY, Calif. — Officials reported progress with California’s remaining 33 blazes — down from more than 2,000 in the past month — although fire danger remained high in some rural areas.
In Trinity County, about 275 kilometers northwest of Sacramento, the outlying neighborhoods of Junction City were still under evacuation orders Tuesday, with a large wildfire less than 1.6 kilometers from the town of about 800 people, said Mike Johnson, a spokesman with the National Park Service. That fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest was about 60 percent contained after burning 241 square kilometers.
Flames around Northern California have led to a handful of evacuations and are contributing to air quality problems. Dense smoke has been creating unhealthy air that will likely turn hazardous in Trinity, Humboldt and Siskiyou counties this week, said Dimitri Stanich, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board.
“People need to seek shelter and avoid exposure,” Stanich said. “These levels are damaging even to healthy people.”
State officials plan to turn gymnasiums and other buildings in all three counties into shelters equipped with air filters, he said.
Wildfires burning since June 21 have scorched 3,958 square kilometers across the state and destroyed 122 homes.
In many parts of the state, lower temperatures and higher humidity have aided firefighters, including those in the Los Padres National Forest near the coast, where a widespread blaze was 72 percent contained Tuesday. The fire has blackened 559 square kilometers and burned 26 homes around Big Sur.
“Things are really starting to look good,” said Daniel Berlant, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
In neighboring Washington state, however, brisk winds fanned a new wildfire across some 20 square kilometers of sagebrush Tuesday night, threatening several dozen homes and leading authorities to evacuate as many as 300 people.
The fire, pushed by 40 kilometers per hour winds with higher gusts, was reported burning in both Grant and Douglas counties in central Washington. State firefighters were mobilized late Tuesday night to help about 100 area firefighters after the flames had burned across 20 square kilometers, local officials said.