Arizona wildfire advances after forcing evacuations near Phoenix
More than 200 firefighters were battling a wildfire northeast of Phoenix on Saturday that threatened scores of homes and has forced dozens of residents to evacuate.
No structures have been damaged as the wildfire traversed nearly six square miles on the cusp of the Boulder Heights subdivision, said Matthew Wilcox, spokesman for a multi-agency wildfire response team.
There were 275 people combating the fire Saturday as temperatures topped 100 degrees before midday, with wind gusts expected.
Fire weather days have increased in Western U.S. over the last 50 years, with some of the largest jumps in California, according to a new report by Climate Central, a nonprofit news outlet that reports on climate change.
“We still have unseasonably high humidity, hot weather,” Wilcox said. “We have no wind right now, but gusts were predicted.”
Air tankers and helicopters have helped douse flames from the Boulder View fire. The cause of the blaze is under investigation. It began about five miles east of Carefree, just outside northern Scottsdale on the edge of the Tonto National Forest.
The Red Cross set up an evacuation center at a high school in Scottsdale, and shelters for horses and other large animals were established at several locations, including a rodeo grounds.
Several fires were also burning in California and Oregon.
California wildfires burned almost 90,000 acres already this year, an amount more than five times the average of pre-summer blazes from the last few years.
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