Nicole Montague and her 16-year-old daughter Destiny noticed a red glow on the horizon as they drove to school in Paradise, California, that Thursday morning. They did not think much of it as they had seen fires nearby in the past.
Since they had not heard any warnings, they shrugged it off. But within minutes mass panic broke out, said Nicole Montague, 45. They gathered their nine dogs and a few belongings as the trailer park they live in burst into flames.
“As we were driving out, the mailboxes were on fire,” Nicole said. “All you could hear were big booms and those were (neighbors’) propane tanks starting to explode.”
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
California’s deadliest ever wildfire, the innocuous-sounding “Camp Fire,” swept into Paradise early on Nov. 8, as a rapid-moving, wind-fueled disaster that has left at least 79 people dead and more than 1,318 missing.
The flames moved so fast that some of the victims died in their cars in a chaotic evacuation as gridlock formed on the two exit routes out of town.
Through sheer luck or quick thinking, many of the survivors only barely managed to escape.
Photo: AP
照片:法新社
The death toll far surpasses the previous fatality record from a single California wildfire - 29 in the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles - and already ranks among the deadliest US wildfires since the turn of the last century.
Besides the toll on human life, property losses from the blaze make it the most destructive in California history, posing the additional challenge of providing long-term shelter for many thousands of displaced residents.
Scientists have said the growing frequency and intensity of wildfires in California and elsewhere across the US West are largely attributable to prolonged drought that is symptomatic of climate change.
(Reuters)
那個週四早晨,妮可‧蒙塔古和她十六歲的女兒岱絲特妮在美國加州天堂鎮開車上學,途中注意到地平線上的紅光。她們並沒有多想,因為以前在附近也看過火災。
她們並未聽聞任何警示,所以只是聳聳肩,不以為意。但在幾分鐘之內,大規模恐慌爆發,四十五歲的妮可‧蒙塔古說道。當她們所棲身的拖車房屋停駐場陷入火海,她們就把所養的九隻狗集合起來,並帶了些隨身物品一起逃走。
「我們開車出去的時候,信箱都著火了」,妮可說。「所聽到的都是爆炸的巨響,那是(鄰居的)瓦斯桶爆炸的聲音。」
聽來似無害的「肯普大火」(營火),是加州有史以來最致命的野火,在十一月八日一早席捲天堂鎮,火勢藉由強風迅速擴大,已造成至少七十九人死亡,逾一千三百一十八人失蹤 。
火勢移動速度如此之快,人員疏散一片混亂,造成該鎮兩條聯外道路交通阻塞,車輛動彈不得。有些人逃生不及,便死在車裡。
許多倖存者只不過是勉強脫身,靠的是果斷的思考,或者純粹是運氣。
這次大火的死亡人數遠超過加州單一野火造成的死亡紀錄──一九九三年洛杉磯格里菲斯公園大火的二十九人──且已成為美國上世紀初以來最致命的野火之一。
除了人命損失,火災所造成的財產損失也讓這次大火成為加州史上最具破壞性的──成千上萬的居民流離失所,要解決他們長期居所的問題,使情況更形艱鉅。
科學家表示,加州和美國西部其他地區的野火之所以愈趨頻繁、嚴重,主要原因是長期乾旱──這是氣候變遷的症候。
(台北時報林俐凱編譯)
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