Duizenden mensen vluchten voor grootste bosbranden ooit in Californië

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usaphotodude twitterde op donderdag 26-07-2018 om 11:48:27 The entire towns of Idyllwild, Pine Cove, and Fern Valley are under mandatory evacuation as the #CranstonFire burns out of control threatening homes in San Bernardino #California https://t.co/RsOLsk7MtM reageer retweet

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Duizenden mensen vluchten voor grote natuurbrand in Californië

Duizenden inwoners van de Amerikaanse staat Californië zijn op de vlucht geslagen voor een grote natuurbrand. De zogeheten Cranston Fire, die vermoedelijk is aangestoken, greep snel om zich heen en woedt in een gebied van zo'n 1.900 hectare in de San Jacinto Mountains.
De dienst die over bosbeheer in het gebied gaat, meldt dat zo'n 3.200 mensen uit onder meer Idyllwild, Mountain Center en Lake Hemet geëvacueerd zijn. De brand bedreigt ruim 2.100 woningen.

De autoriteiten hebben de vermeende brandstichter opgepakt. Het gaat om een 32-jarige man die op meerdere plaatsen zou hebben toegeslagen.

In het westen van de Verenigde Staten woeden momenteel meerdere natuurbranden. Het vuur kan zich door de lage luchtvochtigheid en hoge temperaturen vaak snel verspreiden.

De autoriteiten hebben onder meer Yosemite National Park in Californië gedeeltelijk gesloten vanwege zware rookontwikkeling door de zogenoemde Ferguson Fire, die in de buurt woedt.

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Wildfire California takes another life
(REDDING, Calif.) — An explosive wildfire tore through two small Northern California communities Thursday before reaching the city of Redding, killing a bulldozer operator on the fire lines, burning three firefighters, destroying dozens of homes and forcing thousands to flee.

Scott McLean, a CalFire spokesman for the crews battling the blaze, said flames swept through the communities of Shasta and Keswick before jumping the Sacramento River and reaching Redding, a city of about 92,000 people — the largest in the region.

The Carr Fire is “taking down everything in its path,” he said. “It’s just a wall of flames. It’s nonstop.”

Late Thursday, crews found the body of a bulldozer operator who was hired privately to clear vegetation in the blaze’s path, McLean said.

The fire burned over the operator and his equipment, making the man the second bulldozer operator killed in a California blaze in less than two weeks.

Three firefighters and an unknown number of civilians had burns, but the extent of their injuries wasn’t immediately known, McLean said.

“It’s just chaotic. It’s wild,” he said. “There’s a lot of fire, a lot of structures burning.”

He said many people in Redding didn’t seem prepared for the blaze to reach their city.

“When it hit, people were really scrambling,” he said. “There was not much of a warning.”

Traffic out of the city was backed up, with drives that normally take 20 minutes reaching two and a half hours long as residents fled to safety, he said.

Firefighters tried in vain to build containment around the blaze Thursday but flames kept jumping their lines, he said.

“It’s just a heck of a fight,” he said. “They’re doing what they can do and they get pushed out in a lot of cases. We’re fighting the fight right now.”

The 45-square-mile (115-square-kilometer) fire that began Monday tripled in size overnight Thursday amid scorching temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions.

Earlier in the day with flames exploding around Whiskeytown Lake, an effort to save boats at a marina by untying them from moorings and pushing them to safety, wasn’t swift enough to spare them all.

Dozens of charred, twisted and melted boats were among the losses at Oak Bottom Marina.

“The boat docks down there — all the way out in the water — 30 to 40 boats caught fire when the fire laid down on top of them last night and burned those up,” said fire Chief Mike Hebrard of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

In the historic Gold Rush-era town of Shasta, state parks employees worked through the early morning to rescue artifacts from a museum as the blaze advanced.

Wildfires throughout the state have burned through tinder-dry brush and forest, forced thousands to evacuate homes and forced campers to pack up their tents at the height of summer. Gov. Jerry Brown declared states of emergency for the three largest fires, which will authorize the state to rally resources to local governments.

The wildfires have dispatched firefighters to all corners of the state amid an oppressive heat wave.

A huge forest fire continued to grow outside Yosemite National Park. That blaze killed 36-year-old Braden Varney, a heavy equipment operator for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection whose bulldozer rolled over into a ravine July 14.

About 100 homes were still under threat in the San Francisco Bay community of Clayton, although firefighters had stopped the progress of a small fire there after one house burned.

Hundreds of miles to the south, winds picked up and sent flames rushing downhill on the flanks of Southern California’s Mount San Jacinto.

Helicopters making water drops and air tankers pouring red flame retardant circled overhead as flames burned both sides of the main road leading to the scenic town of Idyllwild.

The blaze erupted Wednesday and quickly turned into a wall of flame that torched timber and dry brush. In a matter of hours, the so-called Cranston Fire grew to 7.5 square miles (19 square kilometers).

About 3,000 residents were under evacuation orders Thursday in Idyllwild and several neighboring communities.

The Cranston Fire was the largest of at least five police believe were purposely set by a man whose car was spotted at the starting point of the blaze in Riverside County, officials said.

Brandon McGlover, 32, of Temecula was booked on suspicion of five counts of arson, state fire officials said.

The heart of Yosemite National Park remained empty the day after campers and hotel guests were evicted so firefighters could try to keep the state’s largest fire from entering the park nearly two weeks after it was sparked.

The closure was heartbreaking for travelers who mapped out trips months in advance to hike and climb amid the spectacular views of cascading waterfalls and sheer rock faces.

Daina Miller of Tucson, Arizona, had wanted to visit Yosemite for years, but instead her family spent a few hours breathing foul-smelling smoke Tuesday before retreating to their RV for the night. The next morning, they left for Los Angeles.

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Bosbranden Californië eisen zesde leven

De bosbranden in het noorden van Californië hebben een zesde leven geëist. Het lichaam werd gevonden in de buurt van de stad Redding. Over de identiteit doen de autoriteiten geen uitspraken. Wel zegt de politie dat het slachtoffer ondanks een oproep niet geëvacueerd was.

Eerder kwamen twee brandweermannen om het leven en een overgrootmoeder met haar twee achterkleinkinderen. Zeven mensen worden vermist.

Evacuaties
Meer dan 38.000 mensen hebben hun huis moeten verlaten vanwege de branden en de autoriteiten sluiten niet uit dat nog meer mensen geëvacueerd moeten worden. Al meer dan 500 gebouwen zijn verwoest. Nog eens 5000 gebouwen worden door het vuur bedreigd.

Zo'n 3400 brandweermannen en zeventien blushelikopters zijn ingezet om het vuur te bestrijden. Waarschijnlijk is de brand ontstaan nadat een kapot voertuig vlam had gevat.

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New wildfire forces more evacuations
Firefighters struggling to contain destructive Northern California wildfires found themselves facing a new blaze that erupted Tuesday and drove through a rural area near a national forest.

About 60 homes in an old ranching and farming area near Covelo, which is about 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of San Francisco, were ordered evacuated as the blaze erupted late in the afternoon. Gusty winds quickly drove it through about a square mile of brush and grasslands, oak, pine and timber near Mendocino National Forest, Mendocino County Undersheriff Matthew Kendall said.

“We’re advised that the fire was threatening structures,” he said.

However, there were no immediate reports of homes being burned.

Firefighting aircraft were called in but it was unclear when they might arrive because many already were engaged in other fires, Kendall said.

Some 40 miles (64 kilometers) to the south, twin fires straddling Mendocino and Lake counties have destroyed at least seven homes and threatened an estimated 12,000 more, fire officials said.

Jessyca Lytle fled a fast-moving Northern California wildfire in 2015 that spared her property but destroyed her mother’s memorabilia-filled home in rural and rugged Lake County.

Less than three years later, Lytle found herself listening to scanner traffic Tuesday and fire-proofing her mother’s new home as another wildfire advanced.

“Honestly, what I’m thinking right now is I just want this to end,” Lytle said, adding that she was “exhausted in every way possible — physically, emotionally, all of that.”

Derek Hawthorne, a firefighter and spokesman for the fire crews, said the hot weather was not ideal but the wind was on their side where he was in the city of Upper Lake.

“It’s blowing into the fire, and it’s kind of blowing it back on itself,” he said.

To the east in Sutter County, a fire that erupted Tuesday night had torched about 1.5 square miles (4 square kilometers) of grassland but no homes were evacuated, state fire spokesman Scott McLean said.

Elsewhere, the Carr Fire had burned more than 880 homes and killed six people in and around Redding. Another 348 outbuildings were also destroyed, and the blaze is now the seventh most destructive wildfire in California history, fire officials said.

National Park officials said Tuesday the scenic Yosemite Valley and other areas will be closed “at least through Sunday” due to heavy smoke from the so-called Ferguson Fire. The closure began July 25 and had been tentatively scheduled to end Friday.

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“Vuurtornado” zaait vernielingen aan snelheden van 240 kilometer per uur

Na Griekenland wordt nu ook Californië geteisterd door een grote bosbrand. ‘Carr’ heeft maandag zelfs al een zevende dodelijke slachtoffer gemaakt. Op videobeelden is te zien hoe de brand woedt aan enorme snelheden.

“De brand creëerde een draaiing door de snelheid zodat het leek op een vuurtornado”, aldus Neil Lareau, professor aan de Universiteit van Nevada. De man vertelde ook aan LA Times dat Carr de grootste bosbrand ooit is van Californië. “Zo’n grote bosbrand heb ik nog nooit gezien. Het heeft al meer dan 1.000 woningen vernield en 500 andere gebouwen.”

Momenteel vechten er nog altijd 13.000 brandweermannen tegen het vuur. Van de zeven dodelijke slachtoffers, waren twee brandweerlieden.

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Californië vecht tegen grootste bosbranden ooit in de staat

De bosbranden woeden in het Mendocino-gebied in het noordoosten van Californië AFP

De bosbranden die in het noorden van Californië woeden, zijn de grootste branden uit de geschiedenis van de Amerikaanse staat. Al zo'n 1150 vierkante kilometer bos is in vlammen opgegaan. Dat is een gebied iets kleiner dan de provincie Utrecht.

Het gaat om twee branden in de Mendocino-regio in het noordoosten van Californië, die een paar kilometer van elkaar woeden. Ze bewegen zich in hoog tempo door het Californische landschap. Omdat ze samen worden bestreden, worden ze gezien als één brand.

Tot nu toe zijn duizenden mensen geëvacueerd. 75 huizen zijn verwoest. De gouverneur van Californië heeft steun gevraagd uit Washington in de strijd tegen de aanhoudende bosbranden in de regio.

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Historica fire claims another life
The largest fire in California history turned deadly on Monday as a firefighter tending the blaze was killed.

There were few details on how the firefighter died in the Mendocino Complex Fire, northeast of Ukiah, California. The fire is burning near the Mendocino National Forest, about 140 miles northwest of Sacramento.

"The Mendocino Complex Unified Incident Commanders from CAL FIRE, and the United States Forest Service are deeply saddened to report the death of a firefighter on the Mendocino Complex," CAL FIRE sad in a statement. "Fact finding on the accident is ongoing and notification of the next of kin is in progress. More information will be released as it becomes available."

Officials said the firefighter was from Utah and was injured while working an active part of the fire. He was airlifted to a local hospital where he died from his injuries.

The fire became the largest in state history last week, passing the Thomas Fire from December 2017 as it grew to over 283,000 acres. The fire has now grown to over 349,000 acres, but the Ranch Fire -- one half of the Mendocino Complex Fire -- is up to 59 percent contained.

The fire season has already been a hard one for firefighters working dozens of fires, especially in California.