Tim Stelloh - NBC News
Los Angeles County authorities closed trails in the Santa Monica Mountains after a woman died while hiking amid the heat wave and wildfires raging in California.
The woman, whose identity has not been disclosed, was walking with a friend on Saturday at approximately 2:00 p.m. (local time) on a trail near the city of Calabasas when she
began to feel ill and collapsed,
said Sunday. Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Juanita Navarro.
The causes of death have yet to be determined but there is no suspicion of a crime, Navarro revealed.
The Malibu Search and Rescue department, a unit under that county sheriff's office, said it responded to multiple rescues Saturday in connection with the heat wave hitting the state.
Fire burns this Monday in Sierra National Forest.EFE
The National Weather Service documented a series of record high temperatures across the state on Sunday.
In Woodland Hills, north of Calabasas, the mercury reached 121 degrees.
In San José, 103 degrees were registered just before 2:00 p.m., breaking the maximum that was reached in that city in 1923.
As temperatures soared, the state's power grid operator warned of potential ongoing blackouts for millions of customers starting at 3:00 p.m., the second time in less than a month that a heat wave has generated such warnings. .
[Sweltering heat wave causes emergency power outages in California as fire danger rises]
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti urged residents to turn off appliances, leave thermostats at 78 degrees, and turn off extra lights.
"We need all Californians to help conserve energy," he
said.
"Please do your part."
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The meteorological service issued a red flag alert for the fires, the highest of its scale, for the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties starting at 6:00 p.m.
Low humidity, gusty winds and high temperatures would increase the threat of "extreme fire behavior," warns that service.
Much of northern California's inland counties are also under a red flag warning, as firefighters continued to fight massive fires across the state.
[Good news amid catastrophe: 2,000-year-old trees survive California wildfires]
In the Sierra National Forest, dozens of campers were rescued Saturday after a fire that started the day before cornered them at camp.
Álvaro Rodarte, who was at the Mammoth Pool campground with friends and family, said they were planning to go by boat when they saw smoke in the distance Saturday morning.
By the time they returned to their camp to pack their gear,
the flames had spread hundreds of feet around Mammoth Pool
, he said.
["We'll be here a long time": Firefighters can't keep up with California fires. There are 7 dead]
They loaded their cars and tried to escape, but they gave up because it was too dangerous to drive, he explained.
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The group stayed in a lake for about five hours until a helicopter arrived and evacuated them to Fresno, he said.
"I'm physically exhausted." "I have no strength left."
The California National Guard, which rescued the campers, tweeted Sunday a photo of dozens of evacuees aboard a Chinook helicopter.
The fire, which was 0% contained as of Sunday afternoon, had already consumed 45,500 acres.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the rapidly spreading blaze was so intense that it had created its own thunderstorms with lightning, wind and no rain.
It is also possible that there is a tornado of fire, something rare, he warned.
Swain said the only thing keeping more cities across the state from hitting record temperatures has been the "thick blanket of smoke from the alarmingly growing wildfires."
"I expect California to set a new record for acres burned in the modern era by Monday."
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According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, this year fires have consumed more than 1.8 million acres across the state.
Two of the largest fires in California history began after what authorities called the "lightning siege of 2020," when nearly 11,000 lightning strikes struck Northern California in just three days.
As of Sunday, the two fires had ravaged more than 770,000, although both were nearly contained.
Scientists have linked the state's intense fire seasons in recent years to climate change.
["It was amazing, a whirlwind took things away": Rare California summer storms cause devastating fires]
A Swain article earlier this year echoed that higher-than-average temperatures are likely to remain in the triple digits well into the fall and extend California's wildfire season into Thanksgiving. .
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