First discovered: 6:20 p.m. Jan. 24 A new wildfire was reported today at 6:20 p.m. in San Diego County. Hunte Fire has been burning on private land. Currently, there is no information on the containment of the fire and the cause of it has yet to be determined.

The last time it was this dry in January, there were barely more than 500 people in San Diego. The year was 1850, and only a quarter-inch of rain had fallen in six months. It made the region ripe for wildfire — but that wasn’t much of a concern. The city’s population was clustered along the coast, far from the backcountry, where most fires burned.