Page 10 - Fire Activity News Today

>> >> reporter: thats right. the number of residences destroyed has gone up from 24 to 39. now, thats not because of new fire activity thats because crews were able to get into some burned out areas and get a better assessment of the damage. cooler weather is helping out. firefighters have been slowing the spread of the flames and the fire is 20% contained and temperatures are expected to rise today. this thing is behaving so erratically they are saying the fire -- that everyone is not safe unti...

The worst of them dubbed the rocky fire, 100 miles north of san francisco and its only 5% contained. its already destroyed two dozen homes and its threatening thousands more. cnns stephanie elam is live for us now in california with the latest. stephanie? >> hi, fred. yes, we are out here pretty much at a good intersection to take a look at what is happening here. you can see behind us we have cal fire trucks here. this is a staging area coming in from the fireline, some about to head out. this ...

>> reporter: the good news, no honests have been damaged. so far no injuries and at last check the fire was some three, three and a half miles. the side where the firefighters are concentrating their efforts. the northwest flank of the area where theyre doing dropouts or burnouts, dropping the fire retardant, were not out of the woods yet. the next three hours will be crucial. mother nature is the big x factor and the winds are still not predictable. you see the huge plume of smoke that is reall...

Wind blew hot embers into the brush. its at least 30% contained. looking at live pictures there. 1700 acres have been scorched so far. five homes destroyed. more than a dozen other buildings damaged. all this while california is in the throes of its worst drought since 1980. >> reporter: good morning, carol. as we show you these pictures from our affiliate knbc, the wind has picked up this morning and its causing some of this fire activity to sort of pick up again. its been pretty much calm over...

I never been in an area where they had bad fires and then we came up here yesterday morning, it was very thick coming through the valley and then cleared. were hoping were okay. >> reporter: and its been difficult for everyone thats affected by this fire. just in the few days and the two days that we have been here, this fire has grown to more than 15,000 achors and as you mentioned, fred, just 7% containment. fred, back to you. >> nick, thanks so much for keeping us posted. so the winds in th...

Actually the weather and some odd things about the weather have created some issues. the temperatures didnt get as cool as it had been so it allowed the fire activity to spread a little earlier. the temperatures do help with that and yesterday morning that wasnt the case. its making it a little difficult to predict. in that regard heres why. the smoke column is building up, breaking down and collapses on itself and then sending downdrafts and wind gusts in different directions. thats made it a l...

Out area and, of course, the smoke. the winds in the fire area have been dying down just a bit but the conditions overall are still feeding the flames, as you heard nick mention there. alexandra steel is in the severe weather center and she explains. >> hi, fred. i mean, the weather is just not cooperating on myriad fronts. temperatures, rain, and wind. so in terms of the temperatures, you know, the temperatures in the morning havent gotten as low or as cool as they have been earlier in the week...

Is key as fire crews on the rs.und radio the water dropping >> we have a bunch -- we would look you to kill. >> reporter: and the pilots make precise drop time and time again. now for the first time since 2008, the national preparedness level has been raised t the highest level, five. thanks to the intense fire activity in idaho, utah, montana, california, and oregon. widespread lightning sparked several fires including this blaze in the sequoia national forest. >> right now -- its anybodys gues...

We have been talking to local leaders and they said how much the concern for the season is given the precedent we have had starting this week. >> concern for firefighters across the state. if the numbers we are seeing this early and how active they are, the type of fires we see is what we normally see in late august, not the first week of august. >> is that because of a dry winter? >> several reasons for this much fire activity. a lot of dead and dying vegetation throughout the state of californ...

That are leading to these wildfires and how would you compare that to years past? are you in an at-risk situation for more of this to develop as the days go on? >> that is the key this year, the vegetation conditions are in a place where we would normally be in june. we started seeing fire activity, significant fire activity towards the middle to end of april. and vegetation is at critically dry levels. all we need is potential for fire starts to drive this. remember, were only on the third day ...