Some Gains Made on 80K Acre Southern California Wildfire

Containment on an 80,000-plus-acre wildfire in Southern California grew to 23% on Tuesday, as firefighters made some progress against the state’s most massive ongoing blaze. It was listed as being at 0% containment a day earlier.

The York Fire in San Bernardino County now includes 8,288.8 acres in Clark County Nevada, according to the multi-agency information system Inciweb.

Fire crews on Monday battled “fire whirls,” sometimes called fire tornados, spinning columns of fire that form when high heat and turbulent winds combine.

The York Fire began on July 28 in the New York Mountain Range of the Mojave National Preserve in eastern San Bernardino County. A heavy downpour for 15 minutes in the early morning hours on Tuesday moderated fire behavior, according to an Inciweb update.

There are 389 personnel assigned to the fire. The cause is under investigation.