California wildfire forces more evacuations as Biden prepares to visit state

The Hopkins Fire is raging in Northern California’s Mendocino County, forcing evacuations and putting scores of structures at risk, as President Biden visits the area Monday and meets with emergency personnel. 

Though no injuries or fatalities have been reported thus far, approximately 200 structures are at risk, according to an incident report from Cal Fire. And a swath of the county west of Lake Mendocino is under evacuation orders. 

The Hopkins Fire started Sunday afternoon and currently covers 257 acres. Its cause is still under investigation, and it is 20 percent contained as of Monday afternoon.

Shelters for people and animals were set up following evacuation orders issued on Sunday, some of which have been pulled back, according to the Mendocino County sheriff’s office. 

Biden is scheduled to visit California on Monday to assess wildfire damage and stump for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ahead of Tuesday’s recall election. The president will take an aerial tour of parts of El Dorado County, where the Caldor Fire has been burning, according to The Washington Post. 

Firefighters are battling extreme weather, including high heat and low humidity, as they attempt to contain the Hopkins, Caldor and Dixie fires.

The Caldor Fire began in mid-August and has since burned more than 200,000 acres. Yesterday, Biden issued a disaster declaration for the affected areas to receive federal assistance to supplement state, local and tribal recovery efforts. 

The Dixie Fire began in July and is the second-largest fire in California’s history. It has burned more than 960,000 acres so far. 

The U.S. Forest Service has preemptively closed all national forests in California through Sept. 17 in an effort to prevent new fires and to brace for fall, as more populous parts of the state could be increasingly at risk due to higher winds in the coming weeks.