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Persistent heat, drought and high winds threaten to fuel wildfires in Northern California. Responsible authorities issued a “Red Flag” warning Thursday for high fire risk. It occurs when forecasts for the next twelve to 72 hours indicate weather conditions that may cause “extreme fire behavior,” as noted on the website of the Fire Protection and Forestry Authority (Cal Fire).
Rescue workers fear that strong gusts of wind could cause sparks and therefore start more fires. Slightly cooler temperatures are not expected until next week. A wildfire that had raged since Sunday in the wine valleys around Sonoma and Napa north of San Francisco was only 5 percent contained.
According to Cal Fire, the so-called glass fire has already burned 238 square kilometers and destroyed nearly 250 buildings. Initially there were no reports of deaths or injuries in this region. It was “heartbreaking” to see this devastation, California Governor Gavin Newsom said after a visit to the city of Napa. It is located in the middle of the world famous Napa Valley wine country.
Fire damage would result in a stretch from San Diego to New York
In the north of the US state, the fire department achieved a small success: 39 percent of the so-called Zogg fire had been contained by Thursday night. Four people had died in the fire since Sunday. There are also more than 17,000 firefighters in California. They also received help from the National Guard and emergency services from countries such as Mexico, Israel and Canada.
Since the first fire broke out in mid-August, more than 7,500 buildings have caught fire and 30 people have died. Currently, more than 96,000 people have been moved from their homes to safe locations throughout the West Coast state, Cal Fire said.
Cal Fire chief Thom Porter made a comparison Thursday to describe the extent of the fires: The firewalls that would have been placed around the many fires in California would have been the length of the distance from San Diego to New York corresponds – around of 4,400 kilometers. He expects the threshold of 4 million acres of scorched earth, more than 16,000 square kilometers of land, to be crossed shortly, Porter said.
