COOL REPRIEVE FOR FIREFIGHTERS

Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the head of Britain’s counter-terror police, said Ms Sturgess’ death was “shocking and tragic news”.

“This terrible news has only served to strengthen our resolve to identify and bring to justice the person or persons responsible for what I can only describe as an outrageous, reckless and barbaric act,” he said.

He added that the other victim “remains critically ill in hospital and our thoughts are with him and his family as well”. CALIFORNIA firefighters battling wildfires that have destroyed dozens of structures and forced thousands of residents to evacuate will get some relief as temperatures cool from scorching levels later this week, the National Weather Service (NWS) says.

“Starting Monday we’re going to see a gradual cool down, as we shave a few degrees off each day until about midweek it gets to something like normal,” said Jim Hayes of the NWS Weather Prediction Centre in Maryland.

Dozens of blazes have broken out across western US, fanned by scorching heat, winds and low humidity in a very intense fire season.

This year’s fires have burned through more than 1.17 million hectares, already more than the annual average of about 971,000 hectares over the past 10 years, according to the National Interagency Fire Centre.