Firefighters battled overnight to contain wildfires in northern California, evacuating residents in the path of 15 separate blazes that have killed at least 10 people and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses.
Efforts to control the fires, which swept through the state’s world-famous wine country, were being helped by more favorable weather conditions, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services spokesman Brad Alexander said, but added that the death toll could still rise.
“Firefighters and emergency management workers were taking advantage of the winds dying down ... and a lot of work is going to be done overnight and early [yesterday] morning,” he said late on Monday. “The top priority is still the evacuations for the most active fires, because life protection is the No. 1 concern.”
Photo: AFP
About 20,000 people have been evacuated from their homes since Sunday, officials said.
CNN said more than 100 had been treated for fire-related injuries, including burns and smoke inhalation.
About 1,500 homes and commercial buildings have been destroyed, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Director Ken Pimlott said on Monday.
Fanned by high temperatures and dry conditions, the 15 fires broke out over the weekend and spread to cover about 29,540 hectares, fire officials said.
The largest, covering 10,878 hectares and 10,101 hectares respectively, struck in Napa and Sonoma counties, the heartland of California’s wine industry, where the status of the crop being harvested was unclear on Monday.
In addition to potential damage to vineyards from fire, experts have said sustained exposure to heavy smoke can taint unpicked grapes.
Fred Oliai, 47, owner of the Alta Napa Valley Winery, said winemakers were nervous.
“You can’t see anything, the smoke is very dense,” he said by telephone on Monday.
He had not been able to get close enough to his vineyards to see if flames reached his 36.4 hectare property.
“We got our grapes in last week, but others still have grapes hanging,” Oliai said.
Schools and universities near the wildfires canceled classes yesterday, and two hospitals in Sonoma County were forced to evacuate, state officials said.
California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Napa, Sonoma and five other counties.
That included Orange County in southern California, where a wildfire on Monday destroyed at least a half-dozen homes in the affluent Anaheim Hills neighborhood, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents, authorities said.
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