Awatchfire

Orange County, California

Prima Fire

Burning 2.4 miles east of San Juan Capistrano and 3.2 miles north of San Clemente, since Monday 5 October.

Map of California. The Prima Fire burns 411 miles from Sacramento, and 411 miles from the state capital, Sacramento.
The fire sits 411 miles from Sacramento.

—

acreage not yet reported

9

days burning so far

—

no share of the perimeter reported held yet

The picture as of 9:09am today

The Prima Fire is burning. The last heat was seen 6 hours ago.

Shaded relief map of the Prima Fire. Amber flames mark every place that gave off heat in the last day; the shading is the shape of the ground.
Heat in the last day Higher ground pale, valleys dark Where another fire is recorded

6hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 3:05am on Thursday, local time.

3readings

of heat in the last day. There is not yet an earlier stretch of record to compare that against.

2.0miles

is how close the heat has come to San Juan Capistrano at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been 2.1 miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to San Clemente is 2.5 miles, 2.9 in the last day.

0.8miles

is the furthest any heat has been seen from the point on the official record — the width of the ground involved so far.

Four other fires are burning inside the same view. Capistrano Fire started on Thursday 3 September, 3.5 miles south-east, and has reached an unrecorded size. Gibby Fire started on Wednesday 2 September, 2.5 miles north-east, and has reached an unrecorded size. Pico Fire started on Wednesday 2 September, 3.6 miles south-east, and has reached an unrecorded size. Test1 Fire started on Friday 28 August, 1.7 miles north, and has reached an unrecorded size. Their heat is counted against them, not against this fire, and the pale rings on the map mark where they are recorded.

Smoke has been recorded lying over this ground nine times so far. The thickest of it was moderate between 1:10pm and 4:30pm local time. The last of those windows closed 23 hours ago, so what is overhead now is not known.

Where the heat is

No cluster large enough to call a separate front. The heat is in one piece.

Conditions measured 4.6 miles from the fire: 85°F, air at 17% humidity, a 11 mph wind out of the north-east.

How it got here

Seven days of record on a day-11 fire

The record here begins at 2:52am on 5 Oct and runs to 3:04am on 15 Oct — 240 hours, 20 readings of heat. The fire is on day 11, so the first 4 days are missing: nothing showed up from above until the fire was large enough and the sky over it clear enough for it to be seen.

Animated map of the Prima Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 83 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 7 days of record

  1. Map for Mon 5 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon5 Oct

    First readings

    • 2 heat readings
    • Heat from 2:52am to 2:10pm
    • Spread 0.8 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  2. Map for Tue 6 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue6 Oct

    Cooling off

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 77% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:32am to 3:15am
    • Spread 0.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  3. Map for Wed 7 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed7 Oct

    Holding

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 3:34am
    • Spread 0.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  4. Map for Thu 8 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu8 Oct

    Cooling off

    • 2 heat readings
    • Energy 67% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:39am to 3:15am
    • Spread 0.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  5. Map for Fri 9 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri9 Oct

    Flaring up

    • 4 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Energy 4.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:20am to 3:15am
    • Spread 0.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  6. Map for Wed 14 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed14 Oct

    Holding

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:26am to 3:21am
    • Spread 0.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  7. Map for Thu 15 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu15 Octlatest

    Today so far

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 25% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:07am to 3:04am
    • Spread 0.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn

How the record has moved

Each step is a change on the interagency incident record — acreage, containment or crews — with the date it was reported. No satellite reading is involved.

  1. Monday 5 October

    First reported

No containment figure has been reported for it yet. No crew count has been published for it yet. Heat was still showing within the last half-day, and the record still lists this fire as active.