California firefighters battle huge blaze as big as LA
The largest wildfire in the US has spread to over 1550 square kilometres, bigger than the city of Los Angeles, as thousands of firefighters battle the blaze in a wilderness area north of Sacramento.
More than 5500 firefighters from across California and other states are working around the clock to douse the Park Fire, burning in the state’s Central Valley, about 145km north of Sacramento.
The fire grew to 156,517 hectares, becoming the fifth-largest wildfire in Californian history, officials said.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The Park Fire on Tuesday surpassed the size of the 2020 Creek Fire in Fresno County, which burned almost 153,780 hectares, fire officials said.
But it is still smaller than the state’s largest fire on record, the August Complex fire of 2020, which burned more than 404,685 hectares in seven counties in northern California.
The Park Fire — fuelled by dry grass, brush and timber — is fast-moving, said Fire Capt. Dan Collins of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or Cal Fire.
“This fire has lots of fuel that is receptive to burning, and it’s hard to get to,” he said.
“Our fire line is 260 miles (673km) around, that’s the size of three Lake Tahoes. It can take two-three hours to get personnel in there over the terrain.”
The weather brings no relief for fire fighting conditions, said Ashton Robinson Cook, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. No rain is in sight this week, and hot and extremely dry weather will prevail, he said.
Temperatures will reach 37.8°C on Wednesday and highs could hover at that level until Monday, he said, with relative humidity dropping to as low as seven per cent.
The Park Fire, which was only 18 per cent contained on Tuesday, has forced the evacuation of more than 4000 people and destroyed or damaged more than 192 structures, fire officials said. No injuries or deaths were reported.
Jeremy Hollingshead, a spokesman for Cal Fire, said that lingering clouds of smoke have grounded the 41 helicopters used to drop water and fire retarding chemicals on the blaze.
Evacuations included Paradise, the town that was devastated by the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest in the state’s history.
