Firefighters are slowly gaining on several wildfires burning in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada area, forcing evacuations and destroying buildings in a historic mining town.
The TCU September Lightning Complex fires, which were started by numerous lightning strikes that hit California this week, cover four counties: Calaveras, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tuolune.
The fires are burning across nearly 14,000 acres. Containment on individual fires varies, but as a whole, they are now 22% contained—up from just 15% contained on Wednesday, according to CalFire.
Related: Lightning-Sparked California Fires Force Evacuations and Destroy Buildings
Evacuation orders and evacuation warnings are still in effect in several areas.
“Firefighters will be continuing direct attack as they work to strengthen and improve containment lines and evaluate opportunities for suppression repair,” the latest CalFire update states. “Sunny skies continued over the fire area, with temperatures climbing into the 90s. This week we are expecting temperatures to cool with humidity increasing in the fire area and wind gusts slowly start to pick up over the next few days.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week that California secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help ensure the availability of resources to suppress the 2-7 fire within the TCU September Lightning Complex Fire.
Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire
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