On the 16th of August 2016, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) detected smoke and warm surfaces affecting San Bernardino, California.
On the 17th, the fire had burned 30,000 acres and forced more than 82,000 people to abandon their houses.
"In my 40 years of fighting fire, I've never seen fire behavior so extreme," Incident Commander Mike Wakoski told the Associated Press (https://weather.com/news/news/california-wildfire-emergency-bluecut-fire-clayton-fire). As this phenomenon is considered as extremely threatening, the governor of California Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency on Thursday 18 August.
