Wildfires still raging in US

FIREFIGHTERS battled wildfires in California’s wine region yesterday as the death toll rose to 15 and thousands were left homeless in neighbourhoods reduced to ashes.

“The homes are gone, they are like dust,” said Jack Dixon, a personal trainer who lives in Santa Rosa, a city of 175,000 in Sonoma County. “It is just like we were nuked.”

US President Donald Trump declared a major disaster in California, freeing up federal funding and resources to help fight the 17 large wildfires in the western state. Among the dead were a couple aged 99 and 100 from Napa.