Wildfire near Santa Cruz forces residents to evacuate

Dozens of residents near Santa Cruz are under mandatory evacuation orders as a wildfire moves toward their homes. The blaze so far has burned 800 acres.

The fire started early Sunday morning on a ridge in Santa Clara County, but winds took it into a canyon and into Santa Cruz County. Those winds are of concern again today.

If they aren’t too strong, nine air tankers and half-a-dozen helicopters will be in the air during the day, dropping water and fire retardant in the canyons inaccessible to ground crews. Nearly a thousand firefighters are on the ground, trying to get a line around the wildfire; so far, they’ve managed to contain about 20 percent of it.

The “Loma” fire is burning near an area where a wildfire last year forced about 2,400 people to evacuate and destroyed nearly 30 homes.