Crews battled “fire whirls” in California’s Mojave National Preserve this weekend as a massive wildfire crossed into Nevada.
The York Fire on Monday was mapped at about 284km2, with no containment.
The blaze began on Friday near the remote Caruthers Canyon area of the wildland preserve, crossed the state line into Nevada on Sunday and sent smoke further east into the Las Vegas Valley.
Photo: AP
A smoky haze blotted out the midday sun on the Las Vegas Strip, and obliterated views of mountains surrounding the city and suburbs.
Because of low visibility, Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas reported departure delays of nearly two hours.
A fire whirl — sometimes called a fire tornado — is a “spinning column of fire” that forms when intense heat and turbulent winds combine, the US National Park Service said.
Photo: AP
The vortexes — which can be anywhere from 1m to 100m tall — were spotted on Sunday on the north end of the York Fire.
“While these can be fascinating to observe, they are a very dangerous natural phenomena that can occur during wildfires,” the park service wrote.
The whirls require high temperatures to form. In Searchlight, Nevada — an unincorporated area about 19km from the California border where the fire burned — Monday’s high was 37.8°C, the US National Weather Service said.
Wind-driven flames 6m high in some spots charred blackbrush scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands and Joshua trees in the New York Mountains in San Bernardino County.
Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that it could take the pinyon-juniper woodlands 200 to 300 years to become “a functional community again,” while the blackbrush scrub and Joshua trees are unlikely to regrow after this catastrophic blaze.
“It will change the habitat possibly permanently,” Anderson said.
The cause of the York Fire remains under investigation, although authorities say it started on private land within the preserve.
To the southwest, the Bonny Fire burned about 9.3km2 in the hills of Riverside County. It was about 30 percent contained on Monday.
More than 1,300 people were ordered to evacuate their homes on Saturday near the community of Aguanga, which is home to horse ranches and wineries.
However, the Bonny Fire did not grow on Monday and some were allowed back home.
One firefighter was injured in the blaze.
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