After brief respite, firefighters’ battle on the West Coast to get tougher

After firefighters got a brief respite in their battle against two major fires on the West Coast Tuesday, their job is expected to get a lot tougher throughout the rest of the workweek. The video above shows what California’s Dixie Fire looked like Tuesday, and includes interviews with a CalFire spokesperson and two people who are staying at a shelter for evacuees.

Firefighters were helped by cooler and wet weather Tuesday. “Usually when it’s this kind of the moisture and the cloud cover, you know, it keeps the temperatures a little cooler and the humidity is a little higher,” CalFire Spokesman Kevin Colburn said. “And then the smoke is also helping keep that fire behavior down.”

The Dixie Fire, now nearly 340 square miles large, is 23 percent contained. It remains a threat to more than 10,000 homes in the area.

Regarding the Dixie Fire, Colburn said “The fire is looking better. You know, we are starting to gain containment. It’s creeping up slowly. We haven’t had as much growth as there had been in the prior days, but all it takes is a weather change. So we are making progress.”

Rain also fell over the nation’s largest fire, the Bootleg Fire in Southern Oregon. That fire has scorched nearly 646 square miles, and destroyed 161 homes, 247 outbuildings and 342 vehicles in Klamath and Lake counties.

Meanwhile, at the California/Nevada border, Governors Gavin Newsom and Steve Sisolak planned a brief Wednesday morning tour of damage from the Tamarack Fire south of Lake Tahoe. The 106-square-mile blaze was more than contained as of Wednesday morning. At least 23 buildings have burned since lightning sparked the fire on July 4.

While the chance of thunderstorms with some rain, possibly heavy at times, is expected to continue through Friday, fire officials warned that hotter, drier weather is also expected to return. This, combined with expected windy conditions, could pose a threat to progress in containing the fires.