Firefighters Battle Fast-Moving Wildfire in Monterey County

Cal Fire is sending fresh crews to try to stop a wildfire that ignited Sunday in the mountains east of the Salinas Valley town of Soledad.

The Metz Fire burned about 3,900 acres -- six square miles -- in about five hours Sunday afternoon and evening.

The fire swept through sparsely populated grassland in Monterey County's Gabilan Range and is 40 percent contained as of Monday morning.

The fire is the biggest in the state since last fall, Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said.

The area's characteristically gusty winds pose the biggest challenge in containing the blaze.

"The wind is the fire at this point," said Cal Fire spokesman Jonathan Pangburn said Monday.

Pangburn says Cal Fire stopped the fire from spreading to ranch houses in the area, so there were no evacuations.

Firefighters worked the Metz Fire throughout the night, and now the battle effort is getting fresh resources. Units from Santa Clara, Madera, Mariposa, and Merced counties will join the fight, Pangburn said. The new crews will bring the total force fighting the blaze to about 200.

No injuries have been reported, and the fire's cause is under investigation.

The blaze comes a week after federal officials cautioned that California could face another tough wildfire season this year.

Cal Fire says drought and bark beetles have combined to kill 29 million trees across California, a huge fire risk that persists even after the state's close-to-normal wet season.

"All those dead trees are fuel for wildfires," Berlant said last week.

Cal Fire says it has responded to about about 900 wildfires across the state in 2016. That's slightly below average for drought years.