California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency on Sunday, as raging wildfires spread in the northern part of the drought-ridden US state, forcing thousands to flee the flames.
The monster blazes have charred more than 40,470 hectares, authorities said, destroying hundreds of homes and commercial structures and mobilizing thousands of firefighters. Eight major fires are currently burning, but two — one about 160km southwest of the state capital of Sacramento and the other about 160km to the east — have been particularly damaging over the past week, with little letup in sight.
Driven by dry conditions, high winds and soaring temperatures, the Butte Fire has burned 26,426 hectares and was just 25 percent contained, while the Valley Fire had grown to 20,235 hectares and was zero percent contained, state fire agency CAL FIRE said late on Sunday.
Photo: Reuters
Brown issued “an emergency proclamation for Lake and Napa counties due to the effects of the Valley Fire, which has burned thousands of acres of land and caused the evacuation of residents and damage to highways and other infrastructure,” his office said.
The town of Middletown, population 1,300, was particularly devastated by the Valley Fire, according to local daily Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, which said the fire grew from 20 hectares to more than 4,000 hectares in just five hours on Saturday — before quadrupling in size overnight.
“I’m looking in all directions, and all I see is fire,” local fire chief Steve Baxman told the paper.
More than a thousand firefighters have been called in to combat the fast-moving blaze, which was tearing through oak-and-grass hillsides dried out from a fourth year of drought.
CAL FIRE said four of those firefighters suffered second-degree burns while battling the blaze.
Throughout Saturday night and Sunday morning, new evacuation orders were issued for nearby communities, including all the way south to the town of Calistoga, at the northern edge of the Napa Valley wine region.
“Thousands of residents have been evacuated from this fire,” CAL FIRE spokesman Daniel Berlant said. “The Red Cross has opened emergency shelters to provide evacuated residents a place to go.”
In a tweet, Berlant said crews have not had a chance to do a full damage assessment on the Valley Fire, but “we know hundreds of structures have been destroyed.”
On the other side of California’s Central Valley, the Butte Fire has drawn more than 4,500 firefighters to the Sierra Nevada foothills since Wednesday. More than 80 homes have been destroyed there and about 6,400 other structures are threatened, Berlant said.
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