Over a dozen fires destroy hundreds of homes, force thousands to flee
MATHER, CALIFORNIA: More than 13,500 firefighters were working on Monday to contain a dozen large California wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of people to flee to safety.
After an extensive review of fire damage, governor Gavin Newsom has requested a presidential major disaster declaration for eight counties,
Nearly 43,000 Californians were under evacuation orders and more than 500 households were in shelters, he said. New concerns were developing at the explosive Caldor Fire southwest of Lake Tahoe, the famed alpine lake straddling the Californianevada state line and surrounded by peaks of the Sierra Nevada and resort communities.
The Caldor Fire, just 9% contained, has become the nation’s number one priority for firefighting resources, said Chief Thom Porter, director of the California department of forestry and fire protection.
The Caldor Fire has incinerated nearly 466 square kilometres of El Dorado National Forest and continuing assessments showed 447 buildings destroyed. More than 17,000 structures were still under threat.
To the north, containment increased to 40% at the Dixie Fire, which has burned more than 2,926 square kilometers in the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades. Ongoing assessments showed 1,259 buildings destroyed,
California’s fires were among more than 90 large, active blazes in the US on Monday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. In Oregon, officials said a firefighter died on Monday while battling a wildfire southeast of Eugene.