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Wildfires fueled by strong winds and an extended heat wave have led to the first death in California of the 2024 season, while wind-whipped flames in Arizona have forced hundreds to flee from what tribal leaders are calling the “most serious” wildfire on their reservation in decades.
The fires were unfolding as authorities in Western states warned of the rising risk of wildfires amid a protracted heat wave that has dried out the landscape, set temperature records and put lives at risk. The parched conditions have also prompted officials in eastern California and Nevada to increase staffing to monitor “deteriorating conditions forecasted for this weekend”, the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest announced Friday.
Mendocino County officials in California said they found human remains in a home that had burned in a fire that started Monday.
The coroner’s office is working to identify the body, but it may be that of a 66-year-old woman whose family reported her missing. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CalFire, confirmed the discovery of the remains.
There have been other wildfires deaths in the West this season, including three people who were killed in New Mexico’s Ruidoso blaze.
In Arizona, more than 400 residents on the San Carlos Apache Reservation were told to leave after a wildfire spilled into the downtown area on Thursday and destroyed at least 13 homes, officials said.
No injuries or deaths have been reported. But the tribe’s chairman, Terry Rambler, called it the “most serious structural fire” on the reservation in decades.
Officials said arson was suspected in the fire, which had so far burned about 2 square miles (5.2 square kilometers) and remained at 0% containment as tribal leaders declared a state of emergency on the reservation.
“We have never experienced anything like this”, Rambler said Friday in a statement.
Patrick J. Victor began recording as the fire exploded around his home Thursday afternoon. His videos showed a dark sky over his neighborhood, wind whipping and carrying black smoke across the sky as his neighbor’s property went up in flames.
