California experiences 850 more Wildfires so far this year

Wildfire Nixon continues to burn in Riverside County. On Thursday morning, the fire is 14% contained, and burning across more than 5,000 acres.

Up north the Park Fire continues to spread. As of Thursday morning, it shows to be 18% contained, burning across nearly 400,000 acres. 

Captain John Clingingsmith from CalFire says containing fires of this size comes with a number of challenges. “A lot of these fires are hard to access. Getting access to these fires with the increased heat has been a slight difficulty.”

Wildfires like these are common on the West Coast, but Captain John Clingingsmith says so far this season, we’ve seen more than usual. “We are currently 850 fires more, year-to-date than we were last year.”

Captain Clingingsmith says this is due to dry heat and more vegetation than usual. 

“Temperatures are higher earlier in our season, causing wildfires across the state. 

And while Summer is coming to an end, Captain Clingingsmith says we are just now getting into peak wildfire season. 

“Southern California’s peak burning season goes through October and if we have a hot and dry year, that’s when we can go into December or even January. They have 3 seasons up north whereas we have one.,” said Captain Clingingsmith. 

Stay with News Channel 3 to hear more about this Wildfire Season.