A week-long wildfire burning in northern California continued to grow out of control, in what is one of a dozen large-scale conflagrations that have been recorded in a drought-stricken state and destroyed hundreds of ‘structures and forced thousands of people to evacuate.
There was no containment on Sunday from the Caldor fire, which had ravaged nearly 399 square kilometers (154 square miles) of trees and shrubs north of the Sierra Nevada. The cause of the fire, which broke out on August 14, was still under investigation.
Firefighters hoped to take advantage of calmer weather and lower temperatures a day after gusts of wind led to the fire via Federal Highway 50, threatening more remote communities in El Dorado County.
The erratic winds blew the embers toward the dry branches, leading to new ignition points and challenging teams trying to fight the flames on rough terrain.
“We know this fire has done things that no one could have predicted, but so has the firefighting in the state this year,” noted Jeff Marsolais, chief supervisor of the Golden Forest.
Several large forest fires have incinerated at least 700 homes, many of them in or around the Greenville and Grizzly Flats communities of the Sierra Nevada. About 13,000 residences remained under threat in locations hidden in picturesque forests.
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The fires have consumed approximately 6,000 square miles (2,300 square miles) and sent smoke to the east coast of the United States. They burned in pasture, scrub and forest that are extremely dry after two years of drought that has probably been exacerbated by climate change.
Nine California national forests have been closed due to the threat of fire.
Northwest of Heat Fire, the huge Dixie fire continued to spread. In five weeks, the fire, 282 kilometers (175 miles) northeast of San Francisco, has become the second largest in the state’s history and has blackened an area twice the size of Los Angeles. Angeles. It was contained in 37%.
California is one of a dozen states, most in the west of the nation, where 94 large fires burned through Sunday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The fires have intensified across the western United States, creating an almost year-round season that has exhausted firefighters. Firefighters used to migrate for seasons from the southwest to the Rocky Mountains, and to the Pacific Northwest and then to California, allowing fire crews to move from one place to another, he said. Anthony Scardina, Deputy Regional Forest Guard of the United States Forest Service.