MORENO VALLEY, CALIFORNIA (AP) – Firefighters in Southern California were battling three separate brush fires that started yesterday afternoon amid a blistering heat wave.
The fires were all within 65 kilometres (km) of each other in mostly rural areas across Riverside County, southeast of Los Angeles.
Nearly 1,000 homes were under evacuation orders, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or property loss, according to officials from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.
Two of the fires had stopped spreading by the evening. The third, though, grew at a rapid rate to more than five square km in a matter of hours, Cal Fire said in a social media post.
Hundreds of firefighters were dispatched.
California is bracing for its hottest weather of the year so far this weekend, and Riverside County is among areas under an excessive heat warning.
Blistering temperatures are forecast to go higher for Nevada, Arizona and California, soaring in some desert areas above 48.8 degrees Celsius during the day.
