United States: Firefighters battle wind-driven wildfire in California, thousands evacuated

California firefighters made significant progress Sunday in containing a wind-driven wildfire that ravaged thousands of acres 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of San Francisco, torched a home and forced residents to flee the nearby area from the town of Tracy in central California.

The fire broke out June 1 in the grassy hills managed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the nation's key centers for nuclear weapons science and technology. The cause was under investigation.

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The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the research center was not immediately threatened by the fire, nicknamed the Corral Fire, which devoured some 52 square kilometers on Sunday (June 2) afternoon . The fire was 50% contained as of Sunday evening.

Thousands of people in the region, including parts of the city of Tracy with a population of 1 million, were ordered to evacuation centers on Saturday. The evacuation order was lifted to allow residents to return home from Sunday evening. Tracy is located approximately 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of California's capital, Sacramento.

CalFire Battalion Chief Josh Silveira said Sunday afternoon that the fire “burned down to homes” in the area and destroyed one home. With calmer winds and milder weather on Sunday, Silveira said he did not expect the fire to spread.

Two firefighters suffered minor to moderate burns Saturday and are expected to make a full recovery, Silveira said.

The wildfire posed no threat to laboratory facilities or operations and had moved away from the site, Lawrence Livermore spokesman Paul Rhien said in a statement to The Associated Press on Sunday.

“As a precaution, we activated our emergency operations center to monitor the situation throughout the weekend,” Rhien said.

Photos showed a wall of flames moving over the parched landscape as black smoke rose into the sky.

The wildfire also forced the closure of two major highways, including a highway that connects the San Francisco Bay area to San Joaquin County in central California. But they had reopened on Sunday afternoon.

The San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services issued an evacuation order Saturday for areas west of the California Aqueduct, south of Corral Hollow Creek, west of Alameda County and southern Stanislaus County. A temporary evacuation point has been established at the Larch Clover Community Center in Tracy. The county also asked residents to temporarily use boiled tap water or bottled water for drinking and cooking.

Sunday's maximum temperature in Tracy is expected to reach 29 degrees Celsius, with no rain expected. But warmer conditions are ahead.

The National Weather Service said “dangerously hot conditions” with highs of 39.4 degrees Celsius to 42.2 degrees Celsius were expected later in the week for the San Joaquin Valley, a region that encompasses Tracy. Wind gusts of up to 45 mph hit the area Saturday evening, according to meteorologist Idamis Shoemaker of the Sacramento Weather Service.