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REDDING, California – An explosive fire caused the closure of tens of kilometers of a major highway in California, just weeks after a fire destroyed neighborhoods and killed eight people.
The Delta Fire broke out Wednesday afternoon and in a few hours it devoured nearly 8 square miles (5,000 acres) of woodland and brush on both sides of Interstate 5 near the line of D & D. State of Oregon.
Fire officials said the fire had been caused by the man, but they did not indicate whether it was arson or arson. Accident.
Truckers abandoned their vehicles as flames rumbled in the hills. In a video, a passenger in a vehicle shouts, "Oh my God, I want to go!" as the trees ignited and the leaves of fire roasted on the side of the road.
About 17 large rigs were abandoned and at least four caught fire, Lt. Cmdr. Kyle Foster of the Mount Shasta office of the California Highway Patrol told the Los Angeles Times.
CBS Sacramento reports that some of the platforms have been left "burned".
US Forest Service officers helped the driver of a flaming truck get on the road and other truckers, firefighters and others helped other drivers, he added.
"Vehicles are scattered everywhere," said Brandon Vaccaro, of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, at Redding Record Searchlight. "Everything that happened here was probably pretty ugly for a moment."
"Oh my God, it's hot, it's hot, who do you feel the heat?" Laurie Beck told her husband in a mobile phone video passing by the flames. The video was presented by CBS Sacramento. "At first, it was just a beautiful sunny day and the next moment, towards the next corner, it's like this:" What's going on here? "It was surreal."
About 45 miles from I-5 have been closed in both directions, said Chris Losi, a spokesman for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The road remained closed until Wednesday evening and there was no immediate response to the reopening of the tracks.
A California-affiliated CBS Chico reporter, KHSL-TV, made an accelerated video:
The fire also delayed Coast Starlight service from Amtrak between Sacramento and Oregon.
Rural houses and cottages scattered in and around the forest were under evacuation orders from the Lakehead community in the north to the Siskiyou County border, Losi said.
"It's not a lot of people," he said.
The fire showed "critical" behavior – burning fiercely and moving fast – but he was still far from the big cities, he added.
Flames from Delta Fire burns a hill next to Interstate 5 in Redding, California on September 5, 2018
CHP Redding / Sgt. Ross / CBS Sacramento
CBS Sacramento reports that firefighters feared that the Redding fire could be combined with another forest fire, the Hirz fire, which burned about ten kilometers.
The town of Dunsmuir, with about 1,500 people, was about 15 miles from the fire. Residents received an evacuation warning, urging them to prepare to leave if the fire threatened.
A fire in nearby Redding burned 1,100 homes and killed eight people last month. Last week it was only partially contained.
