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Firefighters and planes from 10 states began arriving in California on Friday to help tired aircrews tackle some of the biggest fires in state history, as weekend weather threatened to renew the weather. advanced flames that killed six people and incinerated hundreds of homes.
Some 560 wildfires were burning across the state, but many were small and remote. Most of the damage came from three clusters of fires ravaging the forest and rural areas of the wine country and the San Francisco Bay Area.
These complexes, made up of dozens of fires, exploded on Friday. Together, they burned 991 square miles and destroyed more than 500 homes and other buildings, firefighters said. At least 100,000 people were under evacuation orders.
Two Bay Area clusters, the LNU Lightning Complex and the SCU Lightning Complex, became the second and third largest wildfires in recent state history, respectively, in terms of size, according to Cal archives. Fire.
The third fire, the CZU Lightning Complex, is in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.
The fires were started by lightning. Cooler, wetter weather overnight helped firefighters deal with the blazes, but the National Weather Service issued a weather watch Sunday morning through Tuesday for the entire bay area and central coast. Forecasters said there was a risk of thunderstorms bringing more lightning and erratic gusts.
More than 12,000 personnel were fighting fires around the state, aided by fleets of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. State fire agency Cal Fire called 96 percent of available fire trucks on Friday. Reinforcements have started to arrive.
The number of staff assigned to the LNU complex, in the heart of the wine country north of San Francisco, more than doubled from 580 to more than 1,400 and nearly 200 fire trucks were at the scene, the people said. firefighters.
“I’m happy to see the jumps we made today,” said Sean Kavanaugh, Cal Fire Incident Commander.
This could help crews make further progress against the fire, which was only 15% contained. Most of the evacuations for the town of Vacaville have been lifted. The threat of fire was reduced after reaching the city limits.
“I feel like we’re up, up, and actually a little forward,” Kavanaugh said.
However, the number of large fires was “staggering” and had put “enormous strain” on firefighting resources in all western states, he said. Nevada and Arizona, for example, have battled massive fires this week as a heat wave swept west.
Governor Gavin Newsom said 10 states are sending personnel and equipment. The governor also said he was reaching out to Canada and Australia.
“We have more people but it’s not enough,” Newsom said.
In the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco, about 1,000 firefighters were fighting a blaze 10 times the size they would usually cover, said Dan Olsen, a spokesperson for Cal Fire.
With limited resources, homes in remote places burned down unattended. Cal Fire chief Mark Brunton pleaded with locals to stop fighting the fires on their own, saying it only caused more problems for professionals.
“We had three separate rescues last night that took away our very few vital resources,” he said.
But Peter Koleckai credits a neighbor, not the firefighters, for saving his home in a rural area where dozens of homes have been reduced to smoldering ruins.
“We were here around three in the morning and the fire department has just left. They are just gone, ”he said.
Koleckai said he ran to a firefighter and told him that a bushfire was breaking out next to a house.
“They never got up there and it engulfed the whole house, brought the house out,” he said.
A neighbor with a high-pressure hose, firefighting equipment and a generator saved his house, Koleckai said.
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mike Smith said a forest fire the size of the area would have 10 or even 20 times as many firefighters.
“We are doing absolutely everything we can,” he said.
The death toll has reached at least six. Three bodies were found in a burnt down Napa County house Thursday, said Henry Wofford, a spokesman for the sheriff.
A man died in neighboring Solano County, and a Pacific Gas & Electric utility employee was found dead in a vehicle in the Vacaville area. Also on Wednesday, a helicopter pilot died in an accident dropping water on a fire in Fresno County.
Smoke and ash from the fires has tainted the air throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and along California’s scenic Central Coast.
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