Wildfire — Imperial Valley, California

2020-06-28 to 2020-06-29 · Imperial Valley, California

Event narrative

A brush fire developed just west of Niland around sunset, near the intersection of Nieto and Noffsinger roads. The fire quickly became out of control, spreading rapidly east due to strong gusty winds. Winds at the start of the fire were observed gusting up to 25-30 mph out of the west to southwest. This made the fire difficult for fire fighters to attack the fire and the fire ended up spreading through the center of Niland. The forward progress of the fire was not stopped until 2 AM PDT that night and not fully contained until almost 8 AM PDT the morning of the 29th. Due to the fire, power was lost to the area, around 130 people were evacuated, around 40 homes were destroyed, and there was one fatality.

Wider weather episode

Near sunset on the 28th, a brush fire started in Imperial county California and quickly became out of control due to strong winds. The fire spread into the small town of Niland destroying numerous houses and structures.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 900079. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.