Heat Wave May Stoke Calif. Wildfires

High Pressure System Forecasted To Bring Higher Temperatures And Winds To Fire Ravaged West

(CBS/ AP)  A day of gains on the California firelines could be giving way to days of trouble.

The return of some residents to their homes Monday marked progress against the siege of wildfires, but forecasters warned that weather is turning the advantage back in favor of the flames.

"A high pressure system is setting up over the entire West," said Mike Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. "So in addition to the very warm temperatures we're getting, we'll also be getting a little bit of offshore wind over the next couple of days, which keeps the moist marine air from coming inland."

The turn toward hot and drier weather comes as three major forest blazes - a blaze above the city of Goleta west of Santa Barbara, another 150 miles to the northwest at Big Sur and a third fire in the southern Sierra Nevada - are all less than half contained.

Those fires, considered the most dangerous, were among more than 300 still uncontained from some 1,780 that have scorched more than 960 square miles of California in two weeks. Most were started by lightning strikes, but several are believed to have been human-caused.

Ground temperatures were surpassing 100 degrees, CBS News weatherman Dave Price reported from Goleta.

Some 100 structures statewide have been destroyed. One firefighter died of a heart attack.

The 15-square-mile fire near Goleta was 35 percent contained late Monday, mostly on its southern side near neighborhoods. More than 2,000 residents were able to return home.

"We recognize that the west end is problematic," Goleta Mayor Michael Bennett said. "But the north and the northeast corner will be contained soon and then we can maybe take a deep breath and relax."

Some mandatory evacuation orders and warnings to be ready to leave remained in effect for scattered homes on the fire's growing western flank on the Santa Ynez Mountains.

Roger Aceves, Goleta's mayor pro tem, said residents were immensely grateful to firefighters, who in some instances beat back flames from front doors. But they were still concerned that the fire could whip up again.

"We know what can happen," Aceves said. "This is brush that hasn't burned since 1955."

Five fresh "hot shot" crews from Arizona and New Mexico, totaling 100 firefighters, were brought in Monday to the region about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

About 36,000 customers in Santa Barbara County lost power around 8 p.m., said Southern California Edison spokeswoman Nancy Williams. Nearly all had their power restored within an hour, she said. It was at least the sixth straight day that transmission lines have been affected by flames and smoke.

Officials for the 125-square-mile blaze near Big Sur and the 41-square-mile fire in the Sequoia National Forest east of Bakersfield said those blazes won't be controlled for at least another two weeks.

The fire near Big Sur, was 18 percent contained and raging through the remote Ventana Wilderness where difficult access made it hard to build containment lines, said Jim Turner, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

A mandatory evacuation remained in effect Monday for all residents of Big Sur. Firefighters were struggling to widen fire lines near Highway 1 and residential areas to between 300 feet and a quarter mile, Turner said.

Crews secured a Boy Scout camp Monday by burning out brush between the buildings and the wildfire's edge and were setting controlled fires elsewhere to halt the blaze's march, the Forest Service said.

The fire in the southern Sierra Nevada was 26 percent encircled. Unexpected winds pushed it on several flanks Monday, causing flames to jump western containment lines and run up Brown Peak. Air tankers and helicopters dumped flame retardant.

"The steep, challenging terrain makes it tough to work directly," said Bob Kurilla, fire spokesman. "It will take a little while, but we're making progress."

[john-rodger]

Being a resident of Santa Barbara which is just below Goleta I read these postings and wonder, has anyone ever seen the fury of a wildfire. How you pass judgement on the people of this state is beyond my comprehension. Like it or not, we are all in this together. Its a small planet when taken into relationship with the universe. We are our brothers keeper. Open your hearts and your minds, I believe He said something to the effect of ''love thy neighbor'' or as it says in ''Clay County Chronicles'' ''every once in awhile, bait the other fella''s hook.'' Yankees too? ''Yep, Yankees too''. bless all of ya and I hope you never have to witness the burning of a friends home.

[john-rodger]

Being a resident of Santa Barbara which is just below Goleta I read these postings and wonder, has anyone ever seen the fury of a wildfire. How you pass judgement on the people of this state is beyond my comprehension. Like it or not, we are all in this together. Its a small planet when taken into relationship with the universe. We are our brothers keeper. Open your hearts and your minds, I believe He said something to the effect of ''love thy neighbor'' or as it says in ''Clay County Chronicles'' ''every once in awhile, bait the other fella''s hook.'' Yankees too? ''Yep, Yankees too''. bless all of ya and I hope you never have to witness the burning of a friends home.

[john-rodger]

Being a resident of Santa Barbara which is just below Goleta I read these postings and wonder, has anyone ever seen the fury of a wildfire. How you pass judgement on the people of this state is beyond my comprehension. Like it or not, we are all in this together. Its a small planet when taken into relationship with the universe. We are our brothers keeper. Open your hearts and your minds, I believe He said something to the effect of ''love thy neighbor'' or as it says in ''Clay County Chronicles'' ''every once in awhile, bait the other fella''s hook.'' Yankees too? ''Yep, Yankees too''. bless all of ya and I hope you never have to witness the burning of a friends home.

[john-rodger]

Being a resident of Santa Barbara which is just below Goleta I read these postings and wonder, has anyone ever seen the fury of a wildfire. How you pass judgement on the people of this state is beyond my comprehension. Like it or not, we are all in this together. Its a small planet when taken into relationship with the universe. We are our brothers keeper. Open your hearts and your minds, I believe He said something to the effect of ''love thy neighbor'' or as it says in ''Clay County Chronicles'' ''every once in awhile, bait the other fella''s hook.'' Yankees too? ''Yep, Yankees too''. bless all of ya and I hope you never have to witness the burning of a friends home.

[john-rodger]

Being a resident of Santa Barbara which is just below Goleta I read these postings and wonder, has anyone ever seen the fury of a wildfire. How you pass judgement on the people of this state is beyond my comprehension. Like it or not, we are all in this together. Its a small planet when taken into relationship with the universe. We are our brothers keeper. Open your hearts and your minds, I believe He said something to the effect of ''love thy neighbor'' or as it says in ''Clay County Chronicles'' ''every once in awhile, bait the other fella''s hook.'' Yankees too? ''Yep, Yankees too''. bless all of ya and I hope you never have to witness the burning of a friends home.

[john-rodger]

Being a resident of Santa Barbara which is just below Goleta I read these postings and wonder, has anyone ever seen the fury of a wildfire. How you pass judgement on the people of this state is beyond my comprehension. Like it or not, we are all in this together. Its a small planet when taken into relationship with the universe. We are our brothers keeper. Open your hearts and your minds, I believe He said something to the effect of ''love thy neighbor'' or as it says in ''Clay County Chronicles'' ''every once in awhile, bait the other fella''s hook.'' Yankees too? ''Yep, Yankees too''. bless all of ya and I hope you never have to witness the burning of a friends home.

[john-rodger]

Being a resident of Santa Barbara which is just below Goleta I read these postings and wonder, has anyone ever seen the fury of a wildfire. How you pass judgement on the people of this state is beyond my comprehension. Like it or not, we are all in this together. Its a small planet when taken into relationship with the universe. We are our brothers keeper. Open your hearts and your minds, I believe He said something to the effect of ''love thy neighbor'' or as it says in ''Clay County Chronicles'' ''every once in awhile, bait the other fella''s hook.'' Yankees too? ''Yep, Yankees too''. bless all of ya and I hope you never have to witness the burning of a friends home.

[john-rodger]

Being a resident of Santa Barbara which is just below Goleta I read these postings and wonder, has anyone ever seen the fury of a wildfire. How you pass judgement on the people of this state is beyond my comprehension. Like it or not, we are all in this together. Its a small planet when taken into relationship with the universe. We are our brothers keeper. Open your hearts and your minds, I believe He said something to the effect of ''love thy neighbor'' or as it says in ''Clay County Chronicles'' ''every once in awhile, bait the other fella''s hook.'' Yankees too? ''Yep, Yankees too''. bless all of ya and I hope you never have to witness the burning of a friends home.

[john-rodger]

Being a resident of Santa Barbara which is just below Goleta I read these postings and wonder, has anyone ever seen the fury of a wildfire. How you pass judgement on the people of this state is beyond my comprehension. Like it or not, we are all in this together. Its a small planet when taken into relationship with the universe. We are our brothers keeper. Open your hearts and your minds, I believe He said something to the effect of ''love thy neighbor'' or as it says in ''Clay County Chronicles'' ''every once in awhile, bait the other fella''s hook.'' Yankees too? ''Yep, Yankees too. bless all of ya and I hope you never have to witness the burning of a friends home.

[blackyowe]

The whole state is a ecological nightmare. I would never live there. They have thousands of houses built on earthquake faults or on the edge of cliffs so the fall in the sea. They over use water for pools and lawns while half the state is burning every year. They have mud slides and illegal immigrants by the millions,God awful smog, insane housing costs, and really bad public schools. Not to speak of gridlock and miserable traffic problems. Who in their right mind would live there?

[mcv57]

Posted by LloydBest1

I hate to sound lloyd, you don''t sound like much of a christian to me. I think you need to get out of the lukewarm water and into Jesus. God has already shown his deposition to perversion - 1st book of the Bible.

Oh, as to your statement about scriptures, well God is slow to anger. Guess he had enough.

[jdubs63]

LloydBest1....Thank you well said and appreciated it is nice to know there are some caring people no matter where they live. The others with their nasty remarks are well just nasty people in general.

[lloydbest1]

The thing that disturbs me more than the holy rollers proclaiming the fires are God''s punishment for sin is the obvious glee they take in seeing all the destruction. These folks aren''t just indifferent to the suffering of individual innocents in order to "get" a few of the guilty, they are stimulated by it. They WANT to see stuff like this happen. Nothing would please the Apocalypse obsessed more than to see this earth destroyed by the blunt force trauma of a wrathful God.
Such sentiments border on the sadistic. To tell someone who has lost their home and everthing in it that they do so because they fell into God''s disfavor is is mean spirited to say the best of it. Even if that someone DID sin. Somewhere the scriptures say that it rains on the just as well as the unjust (Matthew, maybe?). While that may be true, glorifying in the downpour is not the sort of thing the God I know would take kindly to and it would invalidate every reason He sent His own Son to die on the cross for the rest of us.

Back to the subject at hand...Tuesday''s temperatures are expected to range from about 100 to 105 in the interior parts of Big Sur to 110 or so in the Sierra foothills to 115 to 118 in the northern Sacremento Valley. Humidities could drop into single digits and the wind in Redding is already 25 MPH. Kind thoughts to everyone living in the affected areas.

[mcv57]

Christian, obey God''s warning, GET OUT OF CALIFORNIA. THE WORST IS YET TO COME! THE DAYS OF LOT IS BEFORE YOU!

[mcv57]

Posted by middlecrank

Cause and Effect are laws God has established to bring order to this world. That is funny that you mentioned that, antheist. The Pharoah of Eygpt said the same thing when Moses brought God''s judgment upon that nation. Hmmmmmmmmmm, lighting is pretty much God''s will, yeah. His physics and his world, atheist.

[vortex1011]

Not to worry - those ******* Californians can have their ''Gubner'' screech "I''ll ba baaaaaaack".....that''ll scare the widfires into abating

[acolton1]

The fire season in California has just begun just wait until this fall.

[observer2020]

Controlled burns are the answer. Been doing that for years in Jersey and it''s working--for the most part. Although there are some trees that cannot reproduce without fires, but that''s ok. This is what happens when environ(mentally ill people)mentalists shake their fists at something they know nothing about. Now there''s people losing their houses and everything else. And this is by no means a religious issue. Actually, people turning it to religion is the best joke I''ve heard in a very long time. God helps those who help themselves and burning off would be a great help to CA...after the fires are finally extinguished. Thanks to all the firemen who are risking their lives.

[miami_21]

a view from behind bars; good, that may seem mean but thats what you get for arresting those two brothers trying to save their property.

have a nice day.

[manleysfav]

As the fires rage on, discussion here in West Texas keeps turning to wondering why CA doesn''t practice controlled burns. Over and over, the same thing keeps happening because it''s a natural occurence...fire keeps the land healthy...lightening starts fires. The only solution is to intervene before nature does. Controlled preventative burns. Recent studies have proven this concept. corey2444 stated that it is due to environmentalists bucking this practice. Is that really who is thwarting efforts to control this problem that CA constantly deals with? I consider myself to be ecologically minded. The only thing that makes any sense at all is to burn where it needs to be burned, a little at a time, every year. Eventually, when lightening strikes, it won''t ignite an area that hasn''t "burned since 1955" as stated in the article. All I could think when I read that was, "here''s your sign." I was of the impression that people who live in areas that would be affected by controlled burns are more willing to let the dice fall as they may and just take their chances instead of being inconvenienced. Is this mindset incorrect? Are there efforts to commence controlled burning in CA or not? All we hear in the news are the effects of the fires, the fighting of the fires, the losses due to the fires, etc...Is there even a discussion going on there about controlled burns?