Home International Cooler temperatures help California firefighters, for now

Cooler temperatures help California firefighters, for now

348
0

SANTA ROSA, California: More than 14,000 firefighters from half a dozen states carved out containment lines around some of the largest wildfires in California history on Tuesday (Aug 25), helped by cooler temperatures.

Using bulldozers and hand tools, crews scraped fire breaks into the earth to block flames from around 24 major blazes sparked by dry lightning during a record heat wave.

Advertisement

Advertisement

The worst fires, now the second and third largest in state history, burned in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and 136,000 people remained under evacuation orders.

Higher humidity and gentler winds helped firefighters get a grip on the fires, but temperatures and winds were expected to pick up in coming days.

"The weather has really cooperated with us. We are steadily getting a trickle of new resources in," Cal Fire Operations Chief Mark Brunton said of a blaze north of Santa Cruz.

Four people were still missing after the fire known as the CZU Lightning Complex destroyed 330 homes and other structures, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Chief Deputy Chris Clark told reporters.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Some authorities blamed climate change for the fire in an area of coastal rainforests that do not normally burn.

Since the dry-lightning siege began Aug 15 more than 650 fires have torched around half a million hectares in California, an area larger than the Grand Canyon.

At least seven people have died and more than 1,400 homes and other structures have been destroyed, with losses possibly surpassing 3,000 structures, Cal Fire Assistant Deputy Director Daniel Berlant said in an online briefing.

Livestock owners evacuated animals to the county fairgrounds in Santa Rosa to protect them from a monster fire burning in hills 32km to the east.

"If we get strong winds from an unexpected direction anything can happen," said Kathleen Haase, 45, a farmer from Guerneville who evacuated 200 goats after three of her neighbours lost their homes.

Firefighters cut a containment line around a third of the fire dubbed the LNU Lightning Complex, which is the third largest in state history at more than 140,000 hectares.

To the south, containment ticked up to 15 per cent on the state's largest fire, in hills 16km east of San Jose.

Thousands returRead More – Source

[contf] [contfnew]

channel news asia

[contfnewc] [contfnewc]

Previous articleCambridge university aims for autumn trials of COVID-19 vaccine after UK funding
Next articleChina protests at US spy plane watching drills