California: A wildfire erupted in central California over the weekend, quickly spreading to over 1,000 acres (4.04 square kilometers) as of Monday, prompting evacuations in multiple counties.
According to Emirates News Agency, the blaze, dubbed Silver Fire, was ignited at 2:11 pm local time Sunday in Inyo County near the state border with Nevada and quickly grew to 1,000 acres in six hours.
On Monday morning, the fire spread to 1,250 acres (5.06 square kilometers) with zero containment, Cal Fire said, noting strong winds and gusts reaching up to 35 mph (56.3 kph) fueled the fire, which "created hazardous conditions, grounding some firefighting aircraft and complicating containment efforts."
"The winds are very erratic," Cal Fire spokesperson Chloe Castillo said, "One minute they're pushing north, the next they're going east." Evacuations were ordered for about 800 homes in Laws of Inyo County, Chalfant in Mono County, and the White Mountain Estates neighborhoods, and a stretch of about 50 kilometers of US Highway 6 was closed.