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Devastating wildfires in the US state of California are reaching record levels, and the season is far from over. In Butte County, emergency services found seven bodies. Several people are still missing.
A wildfire in Northern California killed at least 10 people. Seven other bodies were found, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said. 16 people are still missing and at least four have been taken to hospital with severe burns.
The fire, which had been burning for weeks about 200 kilometers northeast of San Francisco, was already half under control when a cooling wind caused it to spread at a rapid rate. Around 2000 buildings were destroyed. President Donald Trump expressed his condolences to Governor Gavin Newsom and said the US federal government was ready to help, the White House announced.
The so-called North Complex fire is one of 29 wildfires in California. A total of 14,000 firefighters were on duty there. Around 20,000 people had to leave their homes or prepare for an evacuation. In total, this year, more than 12,500 square kilometers of forest and brush have been burned in California, although the wildfire season has only just begun. Meteorologists predicted slightly better weather. The wind will abate, temperatures will drop a bit, they prophesied. It had been hot and gusty before.
Hundreds of thousands have to leave their homes
The wildfires also affected Oregon, which borders California to the north. An estimated 500,000 people, more than a tenth of the 4.2 million residents, had to leave their homes, according to the state’s emergency agency, according to the AP news agency.
More than 364,000 acres burned here in three days, nearly double the total area typically burned in the state in a full year. At least four deaths have been reported in Oregon. One of the fires was approaching Molalla, a town with a population of around 9,000. They asked people to leave their homes immediately.
But there are also advances in the fight against flames. Three large fire complexes around San Francisco have now been almost completely contained. But the city was still shrouded in thick smoke. Strong winds carried ash from other wildfire areas to many parts of California and darkened the sky. The air quality authority warned of heavy smoke pollution. Experts sometimes flagged the highest warning level for some areas in California: “Dangerous”, in German “dangerous.”
