Fires in California: Natural Hazards

The statistics on the Basin Complex Fire provided by the National Interagency Fire Center on the morning of July 2, 2008, were sobering. In the previous 24 hours, the area affected by the fire had expanded by more than 12,000 acres to a total of 51,985 acres. (Increased acreage can be a combination of actual fire growth and more accurate mapping of areas burned on previous days.) The fire was only about 3 percent contained. The Indians Fire (81,378 acres) to the southeast was less active: no growth in the previous 24 hours and 95 percent contained.