The fire continues to advance at a “very fast” rate in California. More than 2,500 firefighters supported by 17 helicopters battled the flames of this “explosive” fire as it spread through the wooded hills of central California near famed Yosemite National Park on Monday.
The blaze, dubbed the “Oak Fire,” broke out near the small town of Midpines on Friday and had already covered some 7,000 acres of vegetation according to the latest report available Monday night.
Already being the largest Californian forest fire of the season, “it is advancing very quickly and the reaction window to evacuate people is limited,” Jon Heggie, head of California firefighters, explained to the CNN channel. According to the expert, the speed of progression and the behavior of this fire are “truly unprecedented”.
“The flames reached 30 meters high,” David Lee, one of the evacuees, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper.
The 55-year-old was one of the first people evacuated on Friday and believes his home was engulfed in fire.
“It was heading straight for us. This fire is by far the fastest I’ve ever seen,” added David Lee.
A fire contained up to 16%
The “Oak Fire” was only 16% contained on Tuesday, after destroying 55 buildings, according to the latest report.
The California state fire department said firefighters were working tirelessly “using bulldozers, handheld equipment and aircraft.”
The fire threatens a few thousand homes in small rural towns in Mariposa County, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where several thousand people remained under evacuation orders.
The fire, described as a “megafire” by Jon Heggie, is fueled in particular by dead trees and withered brush in this region subject, like most of California, to chronic drought.
“It’s a direct result of climate change,” the fire chief said. “You can’t have 10 years of drought in California and hope things don’t change.”
Jonathan Pierce, a spokesman for the fire department, said low humidity and high temperatures were fueling the fire.
“We also have high tree mortality in Mariposa County, so there are a lot of dead trees standing, a lot of dead trees that are on the ground,” he added.
Some 3,000 people have been evacuated so far, officials said.
Heat waves
Yosemite Park, one of the most famous in the world, suffered a fire in mid-July, whose flames threatened its giant sequoia trees. These trees for a few millennia have generally been preserved thanks, in particular, to the controlled fires carried out for decades in these forests to reduce the fuel in the soil. Declared on July 7, the fire in question was not yet fully extinguished on Monday.
The American West has already experienced wildfires of exceptional magnitude and intensity in recent years, with a marked lengthening of the fire season, a phenomenon that scientists attribute mainly to climate change.
The “Oak Fire” is one of the most dramatic manifestations of the heat wave that hit the United States this weekend. Near the fire, temperatures should reach 37°C on Monday, according to forecasts.
Similar or even higher temperatures were still expected in the central United States (Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas) and even the generally cool and very wet northwest coast of the country was not spared.
“A Global Emergency”
The weather services have issued a high heat watch in Seattle this week and records could be broken there on Tuesday. The city is so unaccustomed to the heat that many houses do not have air conditioning, which is very rare in the United States.
The region had experienced a historic heat spike in June 2021, with temperatures reaching 47°C in parts of the northwestern United States and neighboring Canada. Authorities estimate that hundreds of people have died from this unprecedented heat wave in the area.
Extreme weather conditions prompted former US Vice President Al Gore, a longtime environmental advocate, to criticize “inaction” by US lawmakers on Sunday.
Asked if he thought US President Joe Biden should declare a climate emergency, which would give him additional powers, Gore answered bluntly. “Mother Nature has already declared this a global emergency,” he told ABC.
Source: BFM TV
