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Severe hot and dry “devil winds” have kicked up in fire-ravaged southern California and more winds are expected in the state’s north, fanning the flames of wildfires that have killed at least 25 people.
“This is getting bad,” said meteorologist Marc Chenard from the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre.
Mr Chenard said sustained winds of up to 65 kilometres per hour and gusts between 100 and 110km/h were expected in the Los Angeles area.
The Camp Fire burning near Chico, California is now the single most destructive and third-deadliest fire in state history, Vox reported.
There, a blaze known as the Woolsey Fire has been burning since Thursday in the tinder-dry canyon of Ventura County, and has claimed at least two lives. The air mbades blowing across the western US deserts, including Death Valley, toward the coast are expected to bring the sustained high winds at least through Tuesday, Mr Chenard said.
“It’s nothing but bad news,” he said.
Additional 65km/h winds will blow across the Sierra Nevada foothills in northern California near Sacramento.
FOREST MANAGEMENT
US President Donald Trump weighed in on the emergency during a trip to France for Armistice commemorations.
“There is no reason for these mbadive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!” he tweeted.
He later followed up by tweeting: “With proper Forest Management, we can stop the devastation constantly going on in California. Get Smart!”
State officials have blamed climate change and say many of the burn areas have been in federally-managed lands.
Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters said Mr Trump’s comments were reckless and insulting to the firefighters and people being affected, CNN reported.
California Professional Firefighters president Brian Rice also slammed Mr Trump.
“The president’s message attacking California and threatening to withhold aid to the victims of the cataclysmic fires is ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines,” he said.
There is no reason for these mbadive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2018
It comes as authorities called in a mobile DNA lab and anthropologists to help identify the dead as the search went on for victims of the most destructive wildfire in California history.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the county was bringing in more rescue workers and consulted anthropologists from California State University at Chico because in some cases “the only remains we are able to find are bones or bone fragments.”
“This weighs heavy on all of us,” Sheriff Honea said.
The overall death toll from the outbreak of fires at both ends of the state stood at 25 on Sunday (local time) and appeared likely to rise.
Authorities encouraged people with missing relatives to submit samples to aid in identifying the dead.
The sheriff’s department compiled a list of 110 people unaccounted for, but officials held out hope that many were safe but had no mobile phones or some other way to contact loved ones.
Firefighters gained modest ground overnight against the blaze, which grew slightly to 440 kilometres from the day before and was 25 per cent contained, up from 20 per cent, said David Clark, a spokesman for the state fire agency, Cal Fire.
Clark said that high winds and dry conditions were expected over the next 24 hours: “We’re at a pivotal point now.”
The worst of the blazes was in Northern California, where flames reduced the town of Paradise, population 27,000, to a smoking ruin days ago and continued to rage in surrounding communities.
The Camp Fire burned down more than 6700 homes and businesses in the town of Paradise, more structures than any other California wildfire on record. The blaze is also one of the state’s deadliest; only the Griffith Park Fire in 1933 and the Tunnel Fire in 1991 have claimed more lives.
Several of the bodies discovered earlier this week were found in or near burned out cars, police have said.
The flames descended on Paradise so fast that many people were forced to abandon their vehicles and run for their lives down the sole road through the mountain town.
As of Saturday night (local time), the Camp Fire had blackened more than 40,500 hectares at the edge of the Plumas National Forest.
About 800km to the south, the Woolsey Fire burning in the foothills above Malibu doubled in size from Friday night into Sunday.
The blaze threatened thousands of homes after triggering mandatory evacuation orders for a quarter of a million people in the upscale beach city, as well as other communities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The fire has destroyed at least 177 homes and other structures with a full count still under way, and has charred more than 33,600ha as of late on Saturday, officials said.
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