California’s lightning-sparkling wildfires have more than doubled in size in some of the largest in state history on Friday, with one blowing forward within a mile of the University of California, 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 by fire have burned an area larger than the U.S. state of Rhode Island.
Firefighters were called out when they fought around 560 blows. Only 45 of 375 non-California fire crews requested by California had arrived, said a spokeswoman for the California Department of State Forest Management and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
The state has been hit by its worst dry lightning storms in nearly two decades. Nearly 12,000 strikes have sent fires through states that have been forced by record-breaking heat, forcing 175,000 to evacuate their homes, mostly in Northern California.
The lightning strikes, driven by record temperatures, were a result of climate change and more such storms are expected on Sunday, Governor Gavin Newsom told a news conference on Friday.
“If you’ve been in denial about climate change coming to California,” Newsom told the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night. One of the worst air temperatures recorded anywhere on the planet in at least a century, and possibly ever, was reached last weekend in Death Valley in the Mojave Desert of California, where it rose to 54.4 degrees Celsius (130 Fahrenheit).
Most of the fires are in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a complex of fire extinguishers east of Palo Alto and another in wine country south of Sacramento, now the seventh and tenth largest in state history, according to Cal Fire.
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Wildfires in California: Two dead as fires burial north of U.S. state |
In Santa Cruz, a city of about 65,000, residents were told ‘go bags’ were ready for evacuation. Bulldozers dug fire lines on the north flank of the UCSC campus, about 4.8 km (3 miles) northwest of the coastal city’s coastal wall.
Videos depicted giant redwood trees, some more than 2,000 years old, standing largely barefoot among the flaming ruins of buildings in the oldest state park in California in the north.
“The fire is continuing, and much of what will happen next depends on weather conditions such as wind direction and speed,” UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive wrote in a tweet, after ordering the campus evacuation.
With up to 20 separate fires burning in some lightning fire complexes, overwhelming firefighters are calling for more support.
“We are still too bad for a fire of this magnitude,” said Daniel Potter, a Cal Fire spokesman, referring to the Santa Cruz blaze.
In the North Bay area, four people died in a cluster of fires that destroyed more than 480 homes and structures in wine towns such as Napa, Solano and Sonoma, Cal Fire reported.
A utility company died on Wednesday when it was on duty to clear electrical hazards to first responders at the same fire, the LNU complex dubbed.
Earlier that day, the pilot of a fire-fighting helicopter, contracted by the state, was killed in an accident in Fresno County.
A burning house is seen along Cherry Glen Road during the LNU Lighting Complex Fire on the edge of Vacaville, California, USA [Stephen Lam/Reuters]
“All of our first responders are working on the rough edge of everything they have,” said Jim Wood, a California State member.
The largest fire, known as the SCU complex, east of Palo Alto, more than doubled in size from Thursday to about 93078 acres (230,000 acres), an area approaching the size of New York City.
SOURCE:
Reuters news agency
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