Post Fire and Point Fire maps show where wildfires have spread in California

Firefighters across California are working to extinguish flames that broke out over the weekend and continued to grow on Monday as the state faces a mix of hot, dry weather and strong, gusty winds. O Post-fireburning near Gorman, northwest of Los Angeles, has spread to more than 15,600 acres, while the Fire pointin Sonoma, it covered 1,190 acres.

Authorities have released a series of wildfire maps charting their spread. Eleven active wildfires of at least 10 acres or larger were burning in California as of Monday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire.

The agency has recorded 1,769 wildfires in total, which have burned more than 41,900 acres and destroyed at least six structures. No deaths have been reported in connection with the wildfires.

Northwest winds of 10 or 15 miles per hour – and gusts up to 55mph around some of the worst wildfires — overlaid with a general drop in humidity in parts of California that together have created the arid and blustery conditions that allow fires to spread quickly, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center warned on a fire weather forecast Monday morning. Forecasters predict heightened concerns about fire weather in the Sacramento Valley, the San Joaquin Valley, the Western Transverse Ranges and the southern Sierra Nevada range — areas of concern that collectively encompass a large portion of California.

A red flag warning was in effect Monday for a large swath of the state, covering hundreds of square miles from the Sacramento Valley in northern California to Santa Barbara County and the southern Antelope Valley, near from Los Angeles.

The problems of the National Weather Service red flag warnings when the combined presence of hot temperatures, low humidity and strong winds fuels an elevated fire risk. Its warning is set to remain in effect for most of the warning area until at least 8 a.m. PT Tuesday.

Another CalFire map shows smoke and haze conditions forecast for much of California and parts of other western states, extending into southern Nevada and large swaths of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.

Post-fire

Of the 11 largest active wildfires reported Monday by Cal Fire, o Post Fire it was by far the most massive. The fire broke out on Saturday and prompted evacuations in Gorman, a rural community in northwest Los Angeles County. By Monday morning, authorities said the Post Fire had engulfed more than 15,000 acres of land in L.A. County and neighboring Ventura as it swept through the hills of Hungry Valley State Park and moved in a southeasterly direction toward Lake Pyramid.

So far, crews have contained 8 percent of the fire, Cal Fire said. More than 1,100 people from 34 different teams were assigned to respond, along with 14 tanker trucks, 11 excavators, seven helicopters and hundreds of additional vehicles. Air tankers sent from across California were flying over the area to drop fire retardants as conditions permitted, according to Cal Fire, but the extent of the fire was limiting visibility above.

“Crews are working to establish perimeter fire lines around the edges of the fire,” Cal Fire wrote in its latest status update. “Firefighters will continue working through the night to reinforce the existing perimeter on the east side of the fire as wind is expected to push the fire further south toward Pyramid Lake.”

The agency noted that 1,200 people were evacuated from Hungry Valley Park due to the fire and Pyramid Lake was closed as flames approached it. Cal Fire reiterated National Weather Service warnings about even stronger winds than ever recorded in the region, with forecasters predicting gusts of up to 20 mph Monday afternoon that could reach 50 mph around mountaintops.

Craig Little of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said CBS Los Angeles that the wind “has been an important factor” in the rapid spread of the fire “along with the terrain”, which is already dry.

“This is all a recipe for a very fast-moving flame,” he said.

Fire officials said some buildings in the area surrounding the Post Fire were threatened Monday and two sustained damage, but none were destroyed, CBS Los Angeles reported.

Fire point

O Fire point, burning in the Sonoma wine region north of San Francisco, was 20% contained as of midday Monday, according to Cal Fire. At the time, the fire had spread across 1,190 acres of land extending southeast from the bottom of Lake Sonoma. Twelve crews, including 400 firefighters, were responding to the fire Monday, with 10 air tankers and four helicopters, as well as air tankers conducting fire suppression as visibility permitted.

Better weather conditions allowed crews to build and reinforce wildfire control lines around the perimeter of the fire, Cal Fire said. But the agency warned that Monday’s conditions could allow the fire to continue to spread. As of 11 a.m. PT, the Point Fire had expanded by nearly 100 acres since Cal Fire’s previous update a few hours earlier.

Hundreds of people were evacuated as the Point Fire grew rapidly on Sunday, while another 4,000 residents in the area were placed under an evacuation warning, CBS San Francisco reported, citing the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. An evacuation center has been established at a high school in Forestville, about 15 miles from Sonoma, according to the station.

At least one firefighter was injured while battling the Point Fire, Cal Fire said in an incident update released around 6 a.m. local time on Monday. The update did not provide details about the nature of the injury or the circumstances surrounding it.