The new Chief of the Forestry Service describes some of the wildfire behavior as “off the charts.”
Randy Moore just took the helm of the USDA agency and says that some fires are behaving in dangerous ways.
“We’ve dropped a ton of water on a small fire, two acres I believe it was, and we thought that the fire was out. But, what had happened is that overnight, because it was so dry and droughty, that the fire had burned through the tree and moved along the root system and it came out outside of the containment line,” according to Moore. “Now, nowhere before would we or have we heard of things like that, but the behavior that’s taken place out there just due to dryness is-- like I’ve said, off the charts in terms of how some of these fires are behaving.”
California’s Dixie Fire continues to break records.
It has now surpassed 200,000 acres, posing a greater threat to the state’s ag industry. Firefighters are tackling flames from the air. However, conditions wont allow them to fly today.
Cal Fire reports that the Dixie Fire is only 23 percent contained, and evacuation orders remain in place.
Related:
Western Wildfire Update: Bootleg is changing the weather, Dixie has doubled in size
Western Worries: 60 wildfire, mega drought, record-breaking heat
Oregon wildfire burns area nearly the size of Los Angeles