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- The devastating wildfires in the US state of California claimed more lives.
- The so-called North Complex Fire in Butte County had spread rapidly Wednesday.
- Thousands of people fled the flames.
Sheriff Kory Honea announced at a news conference Wednesday night (local time) that three bodies were found in a wildfire zone just less than 300 kilometers north of San Francisco. The victims still have not been identified.
According to the fire department, 2,000 buildings were damaged or completely burned. The fires in Butte County broke out near the village of Paradise, which was almost completely destroyed by the so-called Camp Fire in November 2018. 85 people died at that time, tens of thousands left homeless.
Dark all day
Further south, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Creek Fire, which had been raging since Friday, continued to spread. The wildfire has already destroyed more than 60 homes in an area of more than 675 square kilometers and was zero percent under control as of Wednesday, as the fire department said.
Smoke from two dozen California fires covered much of the West Coast state. In the San Francisco area, the sky turned orange-red. It stayed dark all day, the sun couldn’t break through the layers of fog and smoke. Local residents described the phenomenon as “apocalyptic” and as “Marshimmel” on social media.
“Some of our animals were irritated because the sun wasn’t coming up,” zoo spokeswoman Nancy Chan told the “San Francisco Chronicle.” Some enclosures with birds and koalas have been artificially lit.
The sun does not cut through the fog and smoke over San Francisco.
Reuters
14,000 firefighters battled 28 major wildfires in the West Coast state Wednesday. This year a record area of more than 10,000 square kilometers of land was destroyed. According to the fire department, eight people have died in recent weeks, including two emergency services. With the deaths that were known on Wednesday, this number has increased even more. The fires also broke out in neighboring west coast states of Oregon and Washington.
