California Fire Threat Mounts as Dry Winds Start to Rise

Firefighters across the U.S. West have used tools from shovels to airplanes to aluminum foil to tamp down wildfires so ferocious the smoke suffused the streets of Boston.

But just when early mountain snow and rain looked poised to relieve historic drought and heat, the atmosphere is about to bring another challenge: dry winds from the east that howl through canyons and valleys. Called Diablos in the north and Santa Anas in the south, these gusts have propelled some of California’s deadliest blazes and mark the start of the fire season’s most perilous phase.

This year, the stakes are even higher, thanks to a historic drought that's left much of the region brittle and dry. California’s danger zone is “from the border with Oregon to Mexico” -- in other words, the entire state, said Jon Heggie, spokesman for the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.

Also See: Sequoias Burn and Four Are Injured in California Wildfire

On Aug. 30, flames coming over California’s Sierra Nevada turned the air in South Lake Tahoe brown and orange, making breathing impossible. Mayor Tamara Wallace and her husband packed their car and fled, along with the rest of the town’s residents.

“We never thought we would see our home again,” said Wallace, who weeks before had adopted a municipal evacuation plan along with the city council. “Never in a million years did I think we would be putting it into action.”