Over 40 dead as California battles to put out wildfires
CALIFORNIA’S firefighters have been struggling for a week now to put out the wildfires which have swept through the state.
Exhausted firefighters have been sleeping on the ground, using rocks as pillows as the blazes take their toll.
At least 40 people have been killed and hundreds are still missing after six days of wildfires which have swept across the countryside and destroyed thousands of homes.
More than 100,000 people have been displaced in what California’s governor, Jerry Brown, has described as “one of the greatest tragedies” to ever affect the state.
He said: The devastation is just unbelievable.”
Quoted in a report in the LA Times, he added: “It is a horror that no one could have imagined.”
The numbers rushed out of their properties included 3,000 in the city of Santa Rosa, which lies about 50 miles north of San Francisco.
On Saturday, powerful winds picked up overnight in the central Napa Valley, causing the fires to spread and leading to residents being evacuated in Sonoma.
Despite emergency services
A wildfire burning behind a winery in Santa Rosa, California
working around the clock to contain the blazes, more than 10,000 firefighters are still battling to put out 16 remaining fires.
The standard practice for firefighters in a California wildfire is to work for a 24-hour shift and then have 24 hours off; however, many have had no chance to rest for days, instead catching a few hours’ sleep when they get the chance, according to the New York Times.
One group of residents left behind cookies for fire crews with
signs which read: “Please save our home!”
Since igniting last Sunday in spots across eight counties, the blazes have ripped through 220,000 acres and destroyed at least 5,700 homes and businesses.
Thousands of prisoners have also been brought in to fight the raging fires, with around 3,900 inmates enrolled in the programme to join firefighters in combating the inferno.
Those involved get extra time off their sentences and earn $2 (£1) a day and $1 (75p) for each hour of active duty.
Firefighters are still battling more than a dozen fierce blazes raging across northern California. A total of 17 wildfires are raging across northern California.
Images of Napa County, where six people died, showed whole streets reduced to charred debris. Rescue workers continue to pick through rubble in the search for further bodies in the tragedy.