Smoke coming from Southern California fires

Carson City and parts of Northern Nevada were under air quality warnings Mondays after smoke from California covered the region.

Air quality readings climbed into the unhealthy range for sensitive groups shortly after noon on Monday.

Officials said active children and adults, and people with asthma or lung disease should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.

Smoke appears to be coming from the Soberanes fire, in the scenic Big Sur region of the Central Coast. By Monday the fire destroyed 20 homes and threatened 1,650 others as it burned 23 square miles.

More than 1,300 personnel are battling the original 23-square-mile fire, which is burning mostly out of control in hard-to-reach, rugged mountainous terrain.

The fire was threatening about 1,650 mountain homes and burning mostly out of control.

Brock Bradford lives in a historic house in Palo Colorado, one of the evacuated areas, and could see the flames coming down the road as he fled.

“I hope I don’t have to rebuild my house,” he told the Monterey Herald. “I’m 66.”

In Southern California, a large majority of the roughly 20,000 evacuees from a huge wildfire north of Los Angeles will be allowed to return home.

The U.S. Forest Service said in a statement that residents from all but two evacuated neighborhoods can return at 7 p.m. Monday.

Some evacuees have been away from their homes since the beginning of the weekend. About 10,000 homes had been under evacuation orders. It wasn’t clear exactly how many would remain on Monday night.

The fire has burned more than 51 square miles (132.09 sq. kilometers) of ridges and canyons between Los Angeles and suburban Santa Clarita since Friday.

That fire was pushing smoke toward Las Vegas.

For up to date air quality results, go to https://airnow.gov.

You can see the smoke from the Nevada Appeal’s web camera here