Thousands of firefighters aided by aircraft worked in fierce heat to keep two big wildfires from gaining a foothold in the heavily populated San Bernardino Mountains, where millions of trees killed by drought and bark beetles could provide explosive fuel.
The lightning-caused fires, covering about 276km2 combined, merged on Friday afternoon. Wildfires can grow more unpredictable after merging, but in this case "there was no cataclysmic event," US Forest Service spokesman Jim Wilkins said.
The larger of the two fires has destroyed 45 homes and 118 outbuildings and remained a potential threat to 1,500 homes, said Kristel Johnson of the US Forest Service. The 21,200-hectare blaze started a week ago on the Mojave Desert floor below the eastern flank of the San Bernardinos, and was 20 percent contained.
The smaller fire had burned 3,320 hectares, mostly at higher elevations. Though heavy smoke continued to fill the sky on Friday, wind was pushing that fire away from the mountaintop Big Bear resort region and onto areas already burned by the larger fire.
Several thousand people live in and around Big Bear Lake, which went through its last big scare in Southern California's onslaught of devastating wildfires in 2003.
"There's no danger to Big Bear residents, there's no imminent threat at this time," said Tracey Martinez, a San Bernardino County Fire Department spokeswoman. However, about 75 scattered homes and a fish hatchery remained in the fire's path.
Despite low humidity, steep, broken slopes and 41?C temperatures, firefighting efforts on Friday were in "great shape," Wilkins said. About 2,900 firefighters and three dozen aircraft were fighting the blazes.
Still, fire did burn onto ridges with scattered trees, which went up like torches underneath heavy air tankers that dropped fire retardant.
But officials were concerned that the weather will challenge firefighters in the coming days. Fire heat rising into the atmosphere could produce dry lightning.
"That will not only start new fires, but also strike firefighters," National Weather Service forecaster Robert Balfour said.
Concerns about what would happen when the fires merged had focused on the possibility of an ultra-hot fire front that could create its own unpredictable winds, but a merger also can create firebreaks by quickly burning up brush in each fire's path.
"They're going to burn each other out in that area," Martinez predicted.
In Pioneertown, a former Western movie locale where the larger fire burned several homes this week, a 20-person search and rescue team headed out on Friday to look for a 57-year-old man missing since Tuesday. The wife of Jerry Guthrie reported him missing.
Firefighters in southern Montana, mostly east of Billings, were battling a string of fires burning more than 56,000 hectares. The estimate on the largest fire nearly tripled overnight, fire information officer Paula Rosenthal said.
More than 254 structures, including 125 homes, were threatened by the fires, and another blaze near Ashland destroyed at least four buildings. Firefighters were close on Friday to containing a wildfire that destroyed five buildings earlier this week.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was