California reports first wildfire death of 2024 season as fires continue to rage across the West

SAN FRANCISCO – Wildfires fueled by strong winds and a persistent heat wave have resulted in the first death of the 2024 season in California, while in Arizona, wind-whipped flames forced hundreds to flee what tribal leaders are calling the “most severe” wildfire on their reservation in decades.

The fires spread as authorities in western states warned of the increasing risk of wildfires. This month’s prolonged heat wave has parched the landscape, set temperature records and put lives in danger. In eastern California and Nevada, the drought also prompted authorities to hire more staff to better monitor “deteriorating conditions forecast for this weekend,” the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest said Friday.

California’s first death of the fire season was reported after Mendocino County officials said they found human remains in a home that burned in a fire Monday. The medical examiner’s office is working to identify the body, but it may be that of a 66-year-old woman whose family had reported her missing.

There were more wildfire deaths in the West this season, including three people who died in the Ruidoso Volcano fire in New Mexico.

In Arizona, more than 400 residents of the San Carlos Apache Reservation were ordered to leave the area after a wildfire spread to the downtown area on Thursday, destroying at least 13 homes, officials said.

No injuries or fatalities were reported. However, tribal chairman Terry Rambler called it the “worst building fire” on the reservation in decades.

Officials say arson is suspected to be the cause of the fire. The fire has so far destroyed an area of ​​about 5.2 square kilometers and is not even one-third contained since tribal leaders on the reservation have declared a state of emergency.

“We have never experienced anything like this before,” Rambler said in a statement on Friday.

Patrick J. Victor began recording Thursday afternoon as the fire broke out around his home. His videos showed dark skies over his neighborhood, whipping winds and black smoke as his neighbor’s property went up in flames.

“It looks like the fire pits of hell,” he said as he walked through the thick undergrowth.

Victor, 39, said Friday he prayed constantly for rain as walls of fire ripped across the dense tree line in his neighborhood, but the rain never came.

Although his family’s home was unscathed, Victor said he was devastated for his community.

“Some of these homes are second and third generation homes,” he told the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, California’s top fire official said this week that the state has been called out to more than 3,500 wildfires so far this year, ravaging a total of nearly 330 square miles – five times the average wildfire area through July 10 in each of the past five years.

“We are not just in a fire season, we are in a fire year,” said Joe Tyler, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “Our winds and the recent heat wave have exacerbated the problem and destroyed thousands of acres of land, so we have to be extra cautious.”

Amid scorching temperatures and single-digit humidity, California emergency crews battled numerous wildfires, including a stubborn 53-square-mile blaze that prompted evacuation orders for about 200 homes in the mountains of Santa Barbara County northwest of Los Angeles.

California’s fires began in earnest in early June, after two consecutive wet winters lifted the state out of drought but produced abundant grass that has since dried out. A lightning strike in June ignited some of the fires, a danger that could resurface with thunderstorms in the Sierra Nevada this weekend, meteorologists said.

The deadly Mina Fire in Mendocino County, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of San Francisco, likely started Monday afternoon from a pile of fire on a property that got out of control and spread. The deceased 66-year-old woman was last seen on the property trying to protect her home with a garden hose, county officials said.

As of Friday, the fire had destroyed an area of ​​about 0.15 square miles (0.4 square kilometers) and was 70 percent contained.

Across the West, including Oregon, Nevada and Washington, authorities have imposed fire bans and other restrictions to prevent sparks. Campfires, the use of chainsaws and target shooting are prohibited in most areas.

Firefighters in Oregon continued to battle the Larch Creek Fire on Thursday, which had spread to at least 17 square miles of grassland since Tuesday. Lower temperatures and easing winds aided their efforts, but local fire danger remained extreme. One firefighter was treated for heat-related injuries.

In Hawaii, Haleakala National Park on Maui was closed as firefighters battled a blaze on the mountain’s slopes. Visitors who drove up in more than 150 vehicles on Wednesday to see the famous sunset were unable to drive down until around 4 a.m. Thursday because firefighters had blocked the narrow roads.

More than 78 million people in the U.S. remained under heat advisories Friday – a significant drop from earlier in the week. But meteorologists said the heat would ease somewhat by the weekend.

The U.S. heat wave came as global temperatures hit a record high for the 13th month in a row in June and were 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times for the 12th month in a row, according to Europe’s Copernicus climate service. Most of that heat trapped by human-caused climate change comes from long-term warming from greenhouse gases released when coal, oil and natural gas are burned, scientists say.

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Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press writers Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles; Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu; Tran Nguyen in Sacramento, Calif.; Martha Bellisle in Seattle; and Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey, contributed to this report.