LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (AP) — Wildfires are on a furious pace early this year — from a California hilltop where mansions with multimillion-dollar Pacific Ocean views were torched to remote New Mexico mountains charred by a month-old monster blaze.
Highlights
- Wind-driven flames have torn through vegetation that is extraordinarily dry from years-long drought exacerbated by climate change.
- More than 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) have burned so far this year — the most at this point since 2018.
- Predictions for the rest of the spring do not bode well for the West, with the drought and warmer weather bringing on by warmer weather worsening wildfire danger.
- Fire officials say there was not much they could do in recent days to stop the fast-moving flames burning in tinder-dry forests in the Sangre de Christo range.
- Firefighters doused charred and smoldering remains of 20 large homes that quickly went up in flames.