Fire season already off to a bad start

Cal Fire captain Gino DeGraffenreid monitors a firing operation with his crew of firefighters west of Cachagua, Calif. The Soberanes fire has scorched more than 79 square miles and destroyed 57 homes.

Big Bear Hotshots Erik Evans fires a creek bed along Refugio Road while working the Scherpa Fire in Santa Barbara County.

A religious icon stands in the charred remains of a neighborhood in South Lake.

Seth Moberg, 16, gathers belongings from his family’s house on Sand Canyon Road as the Sand fire approaches in Santa Clarita.

A helicopter drops water on the fast-growing brush fire east of Santa Clarita.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

A firefighting helicopter hovers close to the flames from the Sand fire as it burns out of control along Soledad Canyon Road near Acton on Sunday.

Los Angeles County firefighters Kevin Bowers, left, and Pat Hanrahan are watchful as a plume of smoke builds in the mountains along Soledad Canyon Road near Acton on Monday.

Firefighters monitor the burn-out operation in El Capitan Canyon.

Firefighters march into El Capitan Canyon in Golata to conduct a burn-out operation to corral the Sherpa fire.

Firefighters combat the front lines of the Sherpa Fire to avoid it from moving onto the 101 freeway, along Calle Real road, in Goleta, Calif.

Tyra Rene Fuller tears up a she finds a porcelain cast of her daughter’s handprint while soring through what’s left of her belongings after her home was destroyed by the Erskine fire in Lake Isabella, Calif.

The sun sets as smoke fills the air looking west toward Lake Isabella.

The Black Eagles fire crew from Porterville lights a backfire in Lake Isabella, Calif.

Firefighters from Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit pay close attention to a wildfire moving in from every direction in Kelso Valley as the blaze progresses east with the winds near Lake Isabella, Calif.