Map: York Fire sends California wildfire numbers soaring

A wildfire that started Friday, July 28, in California’s Mojave National Preserve has more than tripled the area burned in the state this season.

The York Fire had exceeded 80,000 acres (125 square miles) as of Tuesday, Aug. 1, the National Park Service’s fire managers said. About 8,300 acres of that was across the line in Nevada.

On July 27, the day before the York Fire started, California had recorded 24,229 acres burned — the slowest start to a wildfire season in 25 years. At that point, the largest fire had been Riverside County’s Rabbit, 8,283 acres.

By Aug. 1, the total figure was 95,948 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

York is almost completely within the Mojave preserve’s boundaries. It has closed some roads, but no evacuations have been ordered. It was 23% contained on Tuesday.

Monsoon rain on Tuesday briefly helped firefighters, but the crews were concerned that winds associated with the storm could cause erratic fire behavior.

Besides York, the two largest fires burning Tuesday in California were Bonny, in Riverside County (started July 27; 2,305 acres, 50% contained), and East, in Kern County (started Aug. 1; 1,290 acres, no containment). Evacuation orders remain in place for Bonny but have been reduced since the weekend.