Firefighters battle to tame Thermal fire while bracing for gusty winds

Fire crews were on high alert Tuesday as they prepared for Santa Ana winds, they’re expected to bring the most critical fire weather conditions to Southern California this year.

News Channel 3’s Dani Romero has more on how the high wind warnings are heighten the fire concerns. 

A fast moving brush fire in Thermal. Firefighters locked in a grueling battle of ranging flames Tuesday morning. 

The combination of expected damaging Santa Ana winds and dry vegetation threatens to ignite this fire.

“We are also having some fronts come in its going to cause a little bit of havoc when a low and high kinda of move away from each other," said Richard Cardova.

Richard Cordova, public information officer for CalFire told News Channel 3, his crew is on critical fire condition watch. 

“ We experienced the east winds that are really pushing hard and one the weather pattern starts changing we’ll start like you notice now the winds are blowing a different direction," said Cardova.

Crews worked all day to gain an upper hand on containment.

“Firefighters are always trying to get ahead of it to put the fire out," said Cardova.

 But crews are staying prepared . 

“We’re having some additional heavy equipment," said Cardova. "Bulldozers will be coming out and cutting line around this fire and alot of this fire has impacted the an area where there’s alot of debris.” 

 Cal Fire officials said that the fire is burning in debris and unknown material, which is impacting firefighters.

“Out here unfortunately we don’t know till we turn a corner that there could be a pile of tires burning or some kind of furniture thats been dumped so its very hazardous to firefighters," said Cardova.

Although its not considered peak season for wildfires: "we are always prepared for wild land fires in California," said Cardova.