Wind gusts reach hurricane force as wildfires torch California

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. – Hundreds of fires are blazing across California Thursday morning as firefighters work throughout the state to contain the flames, even as new fires spring up. But officials say despite the conditions, things may be looking up.

In Ventura County, hurricane-force winds have fueled the infernos, threatening homes and forcing thousands of evacuations.

Homes in the area are covered in fire retardant because of the fires Ventura County but there’s another fire happening just 100 miles southeast in San Bernadino. That fire is called the Hillside Fire and people in that area are going through mandatory evacuations. Several homes are on fire. The fire is fast-moving covers 200 acres.

Wildfires burning for days still spreading, while new infernos sprung up on Wednesday but progress is being made

CAL FIRE Division Chief Jonathan Cox said, “The winds that we were talking about yesterday [Wednesday] did not materialize to the extremes that we were fearful of, and that gave us a big opportunity to increase that containment overnight and again today. In addition, I would say that there’s a lot of optimism that we have turned the corner for the better on this fire.”

Officials are warning residents to be cautious, however, though the winds in Northern California are settling, the threat of fire remains

Alex Hoon with the National Weather Service stated, “We are remaining in a very dry air mass over the next several days even into next week, so keep that in mind. Even though this is the end of the wind event, we are expecting to see those continued dried conditions over the next several days.”

In Southern California, 19 million residents remain under a rare Extreme Red Flag Warning as hurricane-force winds have fueled several fires and prompted thousands of evacuations.

Fullerton resident Dyanna Andreou said, “I’m not scared but my husband and daughter, they are packed and ready to go. I’m trying to keep an eye so I can let them know if it jumps the street and goes into the houses ‘cause that’s where we live and the wind is directly aiming at our house.”

Fortunately, residents can begin to breathe a sigh of relief, as the winds will lighten up heading into the weekend.

Those wind speeds are reaching as high as 74 mph in some areas. The biggest hope is for those wind speeds to calm down sometime Thursday afternoon.