Jae C. Hong/Associated Press
The fire has so far destroyed 26 homes, including sites near Banning.
LOS ANGELES — Fueled by dry brush, shifting winds and droughtlike conditions, several wildfires continued to burn across Southern California on Friday as thousands of firefighters worked to quell the flames and protect homes.
Jae C. Hong/Associated Press
A tanker dropped flame retardant on the Silver Fire, in the San Jacinto Mountains, east of Los Angeles.
David McNew/Reuters
The fire advanced on a wind farm on Friday.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Riverside County as one blaze about 90 miles east of Los Angeles in the San Jacinto Mountains, known as the Silver Fire, swelled to 17,500 acres. Officials said the fire was 25 percent contained by Friday evening as more than 1,600 firefighters worked in steep terrain to keep the flames out of the tiny community of Snow Creek, about 10 miles north of Palm Springs.
Some of the 1,500 people who had been evacuated began returning to their homes on Friday afternoon. But 26 homes had been destroyed and six people had been injured — five firefighters and one civilian — since the blaze began on Wednesday.
"We're not out of the woods yet," said Capt. Steve Kaufmann, a spokesman for the fire departments fighting the blaze.
He said the gusty, shifting winds and steep terrain, and the extreme dryness of the trees and brush in the area, had made the fires difficult and dangerous for the crews on the ground.
"We've been talking since April about how dry the fuels are all over the state," he said. "Dry fuels, low humidity, high temperatures and wind make for a volatile combination. It increases our danger and the public's danger when you have a fire of this nature."
Nearby, in the Angeles National Forest, another fire had engulfed 100 acres since Thursday. Nearly 400 firefighters were working to keep it away from the community of Wrightwood. About 75 people had been evacuated, and the fire was 5 percent contained on Friday, officials said.
The Silver Fire is the second this year in the San Jacinto Mountains. In July, another blaze ate up more than 40 square miles, forcing 6,000 people from their homes in the area around Idyllwild, an artist community and hiking destination.
The current fire has burned an area that was consumed by the Esperanza Fire, a deadly blaze in 2006 that killed five members of the United States Forest Service. Raymond Lee Oyler was convicted of setting the fire and sentenced to death in 2009.
Over the last several years, dry conditions have led not only to more frequent fires, but also to more volatiles ones, Captain Kaufmann said. In June, while fighting another fire, he said, he saw an 80-foot pine tree combust so quickly that it was unrecognizable within 30 seconds.
"We've seen an increase in fires over the last few years," he said. "We have been seeing fire behavior we haven't seen in years."
After touring some of the burned area on Thursday, Senator Barbara Boxer blamed climate change for this year's destructive fire season, and warned that wildfires would only get worse unless more was done to combat rising global temperatures.
"Climate change is taking a toll," she said. "No matter what we do on climate, we're very late to the game. We're going to still see more of these fires."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Dry Brush and Winds Feed Blazes in California
Dengan url
https://dunialuasekali.blogspot.com/2013/08/dry-brush-and-winds-feed-blazes-in.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Dry Brush and Winds Feed Blazes in California
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Dry Brush and Winds Feed Blazes in California
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar