As of Friday afternoon, there were more than 500 fires burning across the state with the worst in Northern California. Already some 120,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes.
"We simply haven’t seen anything like this in many, many years," Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a briefing Friday.
Officials say firefighters across the state are stretched thin. But with no major fires burning in San Diego County, at least 32 engines have been sent north as of Friday afternoon.
"In addition to that we sent out dozers, hand crews and personnel," said Thomas Shoots, CalFire San Diego spokesman.
A wet winter and dry summer have made conditions in San Diego ripe for wildfires and local crews need to be ready.
"We’re just about maxed out as far as what we can send," Shoots said.
On Thursday a fire broke out near De Luz, dubbed the Volcano Fire, burned 50 acres. Other than that, the county has missed major fires like those in other parts of the state.
"You know we've been pretty fortunate," Shoot said.
The fires up north were sparked by dry lightning, something that missed San Diego thanks to a heat wave.
"In a way it’s shielding us," said Alex Tardy, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in San Diego. "Ironically it does the same thing with hurricanes — when parts of the United States are under big heat waves and domes of high pressure — the hurricane can’t go through it. And we’re seeing that with this tropical moisture, it can’t go through it. It goes around it. Unfortunately it’s not our backyard but someone else suffers."
Tardy said if dry lighting hit San Diego as it did in other parts of the state, we'd be in trouble.
"The bottom line with that is if we get lightning strikes or get accidental fires we’ll see aggressive fire behavior," he said.
Lightning strikes could happen in the mountains through next month. Then in October, Tardy says to expect the deadly Santa Ana winds.
"The only good news in all of this [fire] is it’s not Santa Ana winds — so a lot of these fires are not driven by strong winds."
