Mexican authorities say three people have died in wind-whipped wildfires in the northwestern state of Baja California.
Mexico’s civil defense agency said Friday that fires near Tecate, near Tijuana and between the coastal towns of Rosarito and Ensenada had forced 1,645 people to evacuate their homes.
Cluster of fires burning in Baja California. pic.twitter.com/WPVyancPZY
— Dakota Smith (@weatherdak) October 26, 2019
One of the fires closed the coastal highway north of Ensenada for several hours. Another, near Tecate, burned more than 35,000 acres (about 14,200 hectares).
Schools were ordered closed in Tijuana, Tecate and Rosarito due to smoke. The National Weather Service in a tweet confirmed that smoke from these fires were flowing into San Diego county.
The HRRR smoke model shows a lot of smoke over San Diego County tonight as some southerly flow brings up the smoke from the Baja California fires. Image below is for 1 AM. #sandiegowx #cawx pic.twitter.com/48GvAxnTkP
— NWS San Diego (@NWSSanDiego) October 27, 2019
Officials blamed strong Santa Ana winds, but they appeared to have died down by evening.
