LAKE MORENA, Calif. – A fast-growing wildfire turned away from homes in San Diego County on Monday, and hot, windy weather sapped the endurance of firefighters around the state.
This fire season is on pace to be the worst year for wildfires this decade, the National Interagency Fire Center reported Monday.
As of Monday, wildfires had blackened more than 4.9 million acres, over 7,700 square miles, since the first of this year, the center reported. That surpassed the 4.8 million acres charred in 2004 and the 10-year average of 2.7 million acres. The season got a fast start with several weeks of spring grass fires that swept across Texas and Oklahoma.
The blaze in the Cleveland National Forest grew to 6,600 acres – more than 10 square miles – and prompted voluntary evacuations of hundreds of homes near Lake Morena, 60 miles east of San Diego, said Roxanne Provaznik of the California Department of Forestry.
The blaze moved rapidly south to southeast and away from homes, Provaznik said.
Off the California coast, a blaze charred 700 acres – just over a square mile – of brush on Santa Catalina Island. Officials hoped to have it fully contained today.
In the San Bernardino Mountains, a complex of fires that had burned more than 38 square miles was about two-thirds contained, officials said.
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