As California braces for a dangerous, prolonged heat wave that’s expected to last through next week, firefighters across the state are battling several new wildfires, some serious enough to force evacuations.
The most dangerous fire was burning in Oroville, where crews on Wednesday were fighting the Thompson fire under an excessive-heat warning, with temperatures forecast to reach up to 109 degrees and wind gusts up to 30 mph.
The USA’s first major heat wave of the summer will overspread the West over the next few days, forecasters said, pushing temperatures to dangerous and even “life-threatening” levels across several states, including California, Nevada and Arizona.
By the middle of the week, temperatures in both Phoenix and Las Vegas could reach 111 degrees, the National Weather Service said. Many record highs are possible.
A new water tank to help fight fires from the air was unveiled in San Marcos Tuesday.
Helicopters with capabilities to drop water onto fires aerially are one of the most crucial firefighting tools. The New HeloPod can be filled with 5,000 gallons of water in under three minutes.
In preparation for the 2024 wildfire season, the Vallecitos Water District and City of San Marcos worked with the California Division of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFIRE) to provide a new water source to aid firefighters.
On Tuesday, April 30, Vallecitos Board President Tiffany Boyd-Hodgson, Ph.D., and San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the District’s new HeloPod, including a demonstration of the new tool in use. CalFIRE representatives joined water and city officials for the event.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department helicopter demonstrates how it deploys water from the HeloPod in firefighting. Photo: Vallecitos Water District
“The Vallecitos Water District, the City of San Marcos, San Marcos Fire, and Cal-Fire have demonstrated our commitment to progress and partnership by providing the resources, expertise, people, and political will to achieve this benefit to our community. Today we are marking an occasion of progress and partnership as much as we are celebrating the milestone in-service of the HeloPod,” said Boyd-Hodgson.
“This important new weapon in our fight against wildfire stands as a testament to how government agencies can work together to protect our quality of life, our property and our community for years to come,” added Boyd-Hodgson.
The HeloPod is located next to a Vallecitos Water District-owned water storage tank east of North Las Posas Road in the Santa Fe Hills area.
CalFIRE provided the HeloPod unit to Vallecitos. Facilities and maintenance personnel installed it in its permanent location in San Marcos. It is eight feet long, six feet wide, and five feet deep.
Vallecitos Water District personnel installed the HeloPod. Photo: Vallecitos Water District
The event marked a significant milestone in firefighting capacity in inland North San Diego County.
This HeloPod is a new high-capacity helicopter water dipping source — a 5,000-gallon cistern specifically designed for firefighting helicopters. It can be filled by water from Vallecitos’ Palomar Tank. It is strategically located in the hills north of Highway 78. It will serve as a vital resource for firefighting helicopters, enabling them to swiftly access clean water to contain and extinguish wildfires before they spread.
Each HeloPod holds a ready supply of 5,000 gallons of water. Photo: Vallecitos Water District
With access to a HeloPod, firefighting helicopters can fill their water tanks faster and conduct more water drops per hour. Filling up a helicopter with a HeloPod is four times faster than filling up by landing, which is vital when seconds count.
County Fire and CalFIRE are also placing large HeloPods around San Diego County. One is already in use at the CalFIRE Station in Julian, and at the CalFIRE San Diego Unit in El Cajon; at the Rainbow Fire Center in Fallbrook, and at the McCain Valley Fire Camp in Boulevard. Future HeloPods will be placed at Crouch Valley near Mt. Laguna and near the Puerta La Cruz CalFIRE Conservation Camp near Warner Springs.
Phoenix sizzled through its 31st consecutive day of at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) and other parts of the country grappled Sunday with record temperatures after a week that saw significant portions of the U.S. population subject to extreme heat.
The National Weather Service said Phoenix climbed to a high of 111 F (43.8 Celsius) before the day was through.
The fingerprints of climate change are all over the intense heat waves gripping the globe this month, a new study finds. Researchers say the deadly hot spells in the American Southwest and Southern Europe could not have happened without the continuing buildup of warming gases in the air.
The only break much of America can hope for anytime soon from eye-watering dangerous smoke from fire-struck Canada is brief bouts of shirt-soaking sweltering heat and humidity from a southern heat wave that has already proven deadly, forecasters say. And then the smoke will likely come back to the Midwest and East.
Water is a precious resource, essential to life and requires our utmost care. As drought, climate change, wildfires and other natural disasters become more impactful, it is more important than ever that we are meeting our everyday and emergency water needs.
In 2019, Australian skies glowed crimson in one of the country’s worst recorded fire seasons. The infernos blackened some 190,000 square kilometers of land, killing dozens of people along with an estimated 1 billion animals and destroying thousands of structures. The bushfires also unleashed plumes of smoke so voluminous they could be seen from space.
For decades, Californians have depended on the reliable appearance of spring and summer snowmelt to provide nearly a third of the state’s supply of water. But as the state gets drier, and as wildfires climb to ever-higher elevations, that precious snow is melting faster and earlier than in years past — even in the middle of winter.
