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Border & Immigration

3 Die in Wildfires In Mexico’s Baja California

An image of hot Santa Ana winds flowing over Baja California is shown in this satellite image taken from NASA on Oct. 26, 2019.
NASA EOSDIS Worldview
An image of hot Santa Ana winds flowing over Baja California is shown in this satellite image taken from NASA on Oct. 26, 2019.

Mexican authorities say three people have died in wind-whipped wildfires in the northwestern state of Baja California.

Mexico’s civil defense agency said Friday that fires near Tecate, near Tijuana and between the coastal towns of Rosarito and Ensenada had forced 1,645 people to evacuate their homes.

Fires raging in Baja California are shown in this tweet from Dakota Smith.

One of the fires closed the coastal highway north of Ensenada for several hours. Another, near Tecate, burned more than 35,000 acres (about 14,200 hectares).

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Schools were ordered closed in Tijuana, Tecate and Rosarito due to smoke. The National Weather Service in a tweet confirmed that smoke from these fires were flowing into San Diego county.

This Oct. 26, 2019 tweet from the National Weather Service shows smoke from Baja California wildfires migrating into San Diego County.

Officials blamed strong Santa Ana winds, but they appeared to have died down by evening.

KPBS has created a public safety coverage policy to guide decisions on what stories we prioritize, as well as whose narratives we need to include to tell complete stories that best serve our audiences. This policy was shaped through months of training with the Poynter Institute and feedback from the community. You can read the full policy here.