Thousands told to flee flames
2008-07-09 14:01
California - Thousands of residents north of Sacramento have been told to flee after erratic winds blew embers across wildfire containment lines, the latest setback for already strained fire crews.
Authorities ordered residents of 3 200 homes in Paradise to evacuate their homes on Tuesday after fire destroyed 40 houses in the nearby rural community of Concow. Evacuation orders also remained in place for 800 to 1 000 residents from Concow and Yankee Hill, about 137km north of Sacramento.
"Right now we're battling the weather and the erratic winds," said Todd Simmons, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesperson. "Whatever the winds are doing, that's pretty much what the fire's going to do."
Firefighters also were struggling against a sudden drop in humidity and a spike in temperature as a heatwave forecast to linger until the weekend grips much of the state.
About 30 lightning-sparked wildfires in Butte County, where Paradise and Concow are located, have charred 19 000 hectares in recent weeks and was about 40% contained, officials said.
Fire crews across the state have been trying to cover hundreds of active California wildfires, many of which were ignited by a lightning storm more than two weeks ago. About 1 450 fires had been contained late on Tuesday, but more than 320 were still active, authorities said.
At a fire east of Bakersfield on Tuesday, wind gusts caused flames to jump fire lines and destroy or damage five residences and four more outbuildings in the Sequoia National Forest.
Potential to get worse
A blaze threatening the small coastal community of Big Sur let up just enough to allow hundreds of people to check on their homes on Tuesday. Authorities announced that more residents would be allowed to return on Wednesday morning.
At least 23 homes and 25 other structures have been destroyed in Big Sur as flames marched over more than 324 square kilometres of land since June 21.
Although that fire is far from controlled - the rugged terrain has kept containment at 23% into the fire's third week - authorities lifted the mandatory evacuation order issued for 40km of the 50km stretch along the Pacific Coast Highway that had been closed.
Many of the 1 500 evacuated residents of Big Sur headed home on Tuesday morning through smoke and ash, anxious to gauge the damage. Officials, however, cautioned that the lifted evacuation orders did not mean conditions had drastically improved.
A wildfire in the Los Padres National Forest near Santa Barbara grew slightly to 3 960 hectares, or about 39 square kilometres, but the number of homes threatened dropped sharply on Tuesday as crews secured fire lines near populated areas.
The blaze continues to threaten about 250 homes, down from a peak of more than 3 000. The fire is 55% contained, said US Forest Service spokesperson Debbie Becker.
"It's going according to plan," Becker said "They've really got a good hold on this fire but there's still a lot of potential to get worse."
- AP