A rapidly spreading large wildfire in southern California prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents around the town of Aguanga, which sits between San Diego and Riverside.
The Highland Fire emerged shortly after noon local time on Monday, expanding from 14 acres to around 1,219 acres by 7:30 p.m. (10:30 p.m. ET) the same day, according to updates from the Riverside County Fire Department. As of Tuesday morning, it had spread across 2,200 acres and had not been contained, Maggie Cline De La Rosa, a Riverside County fire official, told Newsweek.
Fire officials ordered the evacuation of areas including Aguanga, as well as rural places to the north. As the fire spread, the evacuation order was extended to include areas to the south of highway 371 to the immediate east of the town.
Cline De La Rosa said that about 4,000 people in 1,139 homes had been asked to evacuate.
"Firefighters worked overnight to build containment lines and will continue working 24 hours a day until the fire is contained," she added. "A large resource order of additional fire engines and aircraft are here working and still en-route."
Maps showed the fire appears to have emerged around the Aguanga Ranchos nature reserve, before spreading toward Aguanga. Fire officials said they had received multiple reports of a vegetation fire at the intersection of Aguanga Ranchos Road and Highlands Road—from where the fire gets its name.
As of 6:30 p.m. local time, the Riverside County Fire Department said the wildfire was exhibiting a "critical rate of spread," it had destroyed three structures and damaged six others. The cause is under investigation.
Satellite images of wildfire hotspots from NASA showed the Highland Fire had spread along the Aguanga Valley towards Temecula, while federal air quality monitor AirNow suggested the fire had created a smoke plume that extended from the southern portion of Santa Ana to Carlsbad and out into the Pacific.
Riverside County Fire Department said in its latest update that so far 310 firefighters had been dispatched to fight the blaze, along with three air tankers, three helicopters and 49 engines.
According to official figures, at present there are six active wildfires in California, out of a total of 6,375, which have burned a combined area of 379,680 acres. There have been four wildfire-related deaths in the state this year, and three of the victims were firefighters.
The largest bush fire in the state this year was the York Fire, which grew to 80,000 acres and crossed into Nevada at the start of August.
The latest blaze comes after a stiflingly hot summer for southwestern states, which led to prolonged periods of high temperatures and heat wave-induced wildfires.
The arid weather, which experts have said is linked to climate change, also saw massive wildfires in Canada and Europe. Fires riding on dry conditions and strong winds also brought death and devastation to the Hawaiian island of Maui over the summer.
Update 10/31/23, 3:16 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Maggie Cline De La Rosa of the Riverside County Fire Department.
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Aleks Phillips is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter based in London. His focus is on U.S. politics and the environment. ... Read more