[ad_1]
California’s lightning strike wildfires more than doubled in size to become one of the largest in state history on Friday, with a blaze spreading less than a mile from the University of California in Santa Cruz (USCS).
At least six people have died, 43 firefighters and civilians have been injured, and more than 500 homes and other structures destroyed as the fires burned an area larger than the U.S. state of Rhode Island.
The firefighting forces were exhausted as they fought around 560 fires. Only 45 of the 375 out-of-state fire crews requested by California had arrived, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said.
The state has been hit by its worst dry thunderstorms in nearly two decades. Nearly 12,000 strikes have sparked fires in dry land in record heat, forcing 175,000 to evacuate their homes, mostly in northern California.
Lightning strikes, driven by record high temperatures, were a consequence of climate change and more such storms are expected on Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a press conference on Friday.
“If you deny climate change, come to California,” Newsom told the Democratic National Convention Thursday night. One of the hottest air temperatures on record anywhere on the planet for at least a century, and possibly never, was reached last weekend in Death Valley in California’s Mojave Desert. , where it soared to 54.4 degrees Celsius (130 degrees Fahrenheit).
Most of the fires are in the San Francisco Bay Area, with one complex of fires east of Palo Alto and another in the wine region south of Sacramento, now the seventh and tenth largest in the state history, respectively, according to Cal Fire.
|
California wildfires: two dead as fires engulf northern US |
In Santa Cruz, a town of about 65,000 residents, residents were asked to prepare evacuation “handbags”. Bulldozers dug lines of fire on the northern flank of the UCSC campus, about 4.8 km (3 miles) northwest of the coastal town promenade.
Videos showed giant redwoods, some over 2,000 years old, standing largely unharmed among the burnt ruins of buildings in California’s oldest state park to the north.
“The fire continues to progress, and much of what happens next depends on weather conditions such as wind direction and speed,” UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive wrote in a tweet, after ordering the evacuation of the campus.
With as many as 20 separate flames lit in some lightning fire complexes, overwhelmed firefighters have pleaded for more support.
“We’re still under-staffed for a fire of this magnitude,” said Daniel Potter, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, in reference to the Santa Cruz fire.
In the North Bay area, four people have died in a cluster of fires that have destroyed more than 480 homes and structures in wine-growing counties such as Napa, Solano and Sonoma, Cal Fire reported.
A utility crew member died on Wednesday while on duty to help eliminate electrical hazards to first responders in the same fire, dubbed the LNU complex.
Earlier today, the pilot of a state-hired firefighting helicopter was killed in a crash in Fresno County.
A burning house is seen along Cherry Glen Road during the LNU Lighting Complex fire on the outskirts of Vacaville, California, USA [Stephen Lam/Reuters]
“All of our first responders are working on the edge of everything they have,” said Jim Wood, California State Assembly Member.
The largest blaze, known as the SCU complex, east of Palo Alto, has more than doubled in size since Thursday to approximately 93,078 hectares (230,000 acres), an area approaching the size of New York City.
SOURCE:
Reuters News Agency
[ad_2]
Source link