Fires in Southern California burn 30,000 acres and force evacuations

Kern Country officials said in a statement that several fires that broke out in Kern and San Luis Obispo counties on Saturday were blamed on critical weather conditions and dry lightning over the weekend.

Heavy winds and lightning strikes over the weekend have spurred the growth of wildfires in Southern California to more than 30,000 acres by Monday and forced more than 1,000 people to evacuate their homes, officials said Monday.

Several fires that broke out in Kern and San Luis Obispo counties on Saturday were blamed on critical weather conditions and dry lightning over the weekend, Kern County officials said in a statement.

The National Weather Service's Los Angeles office had warned that the heat wave scorching the Western United States would increase the risk of fire, and that "any new fire will grow very quickly."

"The dry weather has been going on for a long time, and those winds can get erratic when you have thunder cells coming through," John Drucker, the spokesperson for the Kern County Fire Department, said in an interview Monday. "We have been on high alert this weekend, and it all kind of aligned."

In Southern California, some fires grew slightly throughout the day Monday, but so did their containment.

In Kern County, the Lost Hills fire had grown from about 500 acres over the weekend to more than 2,800 acres by Monday morning, but was extinguished by Monday evening, according to Drucker.

One fire started Saturday in Tejon Ranch, a well-known, 270,000-acre private property in Kern County, and by Monday evening it was 65% contained after burning through about 9,950 acres, officials and Cal Fire.

The blaze, known as the Rancho fire, forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 people from the nearby Stallion Springs and Bear Valley Springs communities, the Kern County Fire Department said.

On Monday, that order was reduced to a warning for Stallion Springs, which accounted for most of the evacuees, and people were allowed to return home, but told to stay aware of the continued risk. The Bear Valley community remained under an evacuation order, Drucker said.

About 20 miles away, the White fire, which began just before noon Saturday near the community of Twin Lakes, had burned over 5,500 acres, according to Cal Fire. It was 23 per cent contained Monday evening. An evacuation order was put in place for Twin Lakes, affecting 30 evacuations there, Drucker said.

"For the last couple of days, we have had thunder cells and dry lightning, with hundreds of down strikes in the county, and each one has the potential to start vegetation fire," Drucker said. "It is burning through a wilderness area."

In neighboring San Luis Obispo County, the Hurricane fire has burned about 12,700 acres by Monday evening and was about 80% contained, according to Cal Fire.

Apart from Southern California, a wildfire broke out in Hawaii's Kaua'i County on Monday evening. Residents in the Kaumakani neighborhood were evacuated to a nearby high school while firefighters worked to contain a 28-acre brush fire, according to the county's Facebook page.

About 670 people live in Kaumakani, according to US census data. Power lines have been de-energized and water service has been shut off, according to county's utility service and department of water's Facebook pages.