Wildfires calm down, but losses increase

INDIAN FALLS, Calif. (AP) — Cooler weather Tuesday helped calm two gigantic wildfires in the U.S. West, but property losses mounted in a tiny California community savaged by flames last weekend and in a remote area of Oregon that are bracing for more hot, dry conditions that have been making the blazes so explosive.

Teams reviewing damage from the massive Dixie Fire in the mountains of Northern California have so far tallied 36 structures destroyed and seven damaged in the remote community of Indian Falls, said Nick Truax, an incident commander for the fire. It’s unclear if that figure included homes or smaller buildings.

The assessment was about half done, Truax said in an online briefing Monday night, and the work depends on fire activity.

The Dixie Fire has scorched more than 325 square miles, an area bigger than New York City, and it was partially contained Tuesday. More than 10,000 homes were threatened in the region about 175 miles northeast of San Francisco.

A historic drought and recent heat waves tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West. Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

An inversion layer, which is a cap of relatively warmer air over cooler air, trapped smoke over much of the fire Monday, and the shade helped lower temperatures and keep humidity up, incident meteorologist Julia Ruthford said.