Apple Fire prompts evacuations in California [Video]

• The Apple Fire in California has reached over 20,000 acres and has been 5% contained as of Monday afternoon.
• The blaze has prompted evacuations of more than 7,000 residents of the Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
• Firefighters are currently facing a difficult terrain, high temperatures, and gusty winds, which all create “more erratic fire behavior.”

California’s Apple Fire, which has reached over 20,516 acres and caused more than 7,000 people to evacuate, has been 5% contained as of Monday afternoon, the California Interagency Incident Management Team reported.

The blaze was first reported in the Banning Canyon area on Friday. It now burns parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Authorities are still investigating the cause.

Officials have entailed 2,266 personnel, 29 hand crews, 260 engines, 11 water tenders, and 9 helicopters to battle the fire as of Sunday evening.

Firefighters are currently facing major hurdles as they battle the blaze.

Lisa Cox, the fire information officer for the San Bernardino National Forest, explained, “We’ve got extremely steep, rugged terrain. We have many different drainages that are all kind of intersecting together and that creates these funneling effects of different wind patterns and creates more erratic fire behavior.”

Cox continued, “We have very thick brush including this really flammable ecosystem called chaparral that likes to burn and it hasn’t burned here in a long time.”

Cox added that high temperatures and gusty winds have created “this updraft of smoke ash and flame and it creates this huge cloud and it has a downdraft that actually spreads out in all 360 directions around the fire.”

Officials have issued evacuation orders for residents living north of Banning and Beaumont in Riverside County. Residents of San Bernardino County’s Oak Glen community have also been evacuated.

Rob Roseen, a spokesman for the fire department, informed CNN that evacuation centers were set up at local hotels and at Beaumont High School.

Roseen added that COVID-19 protocols — such as masks, social distancing, and temperature screenings upon entry — will be enforced in all evacuation centers.

Source: CNN