BANNING, Calif. California truly is the Golden State this summer — golden brown — and that has fire officials worried heading into the peak of the wildfire season.
It's still weeks before the fire-fanning Santa Ana winds usually arrive and already it's been a brutal fire season, with nearly twice as many acres burned statewide from a year ago, including 17,500 scorched this week in a blaze still raging in the mountains 90 miles east of Los Angeles.
Southern California's Silver wildfire is growing
So far this year, California fire officials have battled 4,300 wildfires, a stark increase from the yearly average of nearly 3,000 they faced from 2008 to 2012, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Until last week, those fires had already burned 111 square miles or more than 71,000 acres, up from 40,000 acres during the same period last year. The annual average for acreage charred in the last five years was 113,000 acres, he said — roughly 177 square miles.
The remains of a home and a car destroyed by the Silver wildfire are seen Aug. 9, 2013, near Banning, Calif.
/ AP Photo
"We have seen a significant increase in our fire activity and much earlier than normal," said Berlant, adding that fire season began in mid-April, about a month ahead of schedule after an especially dry winter. "We're not even yet into the time period where we see the largest number of damaging fires."
"It's not over and it's going to be a long hot summer,"Julie Hutchinson, a California fire battalion chief, told CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy Friday. "This year has been amazing. Since May 1st, we've been fighting fire all the time --- large fires -- fires in areas that we normally would have a few, but they're growing so rapidly."
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who lives in Riverside County, said more than 165,000 acres or 258 square miles have burned in California this year, and climate change is setting conditions for more disastrous blazes, while budget cuts are limiting resources to fight them. Boxer's data comes from both California officials and federal agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service.
This year, state fire officials have called up more firefighters and reserve engines on days with hot, dry conditions, Berlant said.
And while state officials encouraged residents to rid their properties of dry brush before fire season starts, he said authorities are now urging the public not to use lawnmowers or weed eaters during the heat of the day because a spark off the metal blades can trigger a blaze.
On Friday, firefighters launched a fleet of seven retardant-dropping airplanes against Southern California's latest destructive wildfire, which has destroyed 26 homes and threatened more than 500 others in the San Jacinto Mountains.
California fire continues to spread
The so-called Silver Fire has forced some 1,800 people to flee their homes and injured six people, including one civilian with serious burns. The fire had grown by 3,500 acres to 27 square miles by late Friday afternoon, but it was showing little more than white smoke.
Evacuation orders were lifted late Friday for hundreds of residents in Snow Creek, Cabazon, Mt. Edna and Poppet Flats. Other areas, such as Twin Pines and Vista Grande, remained under orders to evacuate.
About 1,800 people were evacuated at the fire's peak, about 800 of which were RV campers.
In the Twin Pines neighborhood outside Banning, Andy Schrader said he couldn't get out in time. The wildfire crept up suddenly and blew over his house, burning his motor home and singeing his hair as he sprayed water from a hose to try to keep the house wet.
"I could feel my face burning," the 74-year-old carpenter said. "And I thought I was going to die."
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