Fires hit homes in California
Firefighters toiled in stifling heat on the lines of destructive bushfires across the US West, making progress against some blazes while struggling to tame others that have forced evacuations of hundreds of homes. In heat-stricken Southern California, powerful winds that sent an overnight inferno hopscotching through the Santa Barbara County community of Goleta vanished in the morning, allowing firefighters to extinguish smoldering ruins of an estimated 20 structures, including homes.
The fire’s spread was stopped at about 40.5 ha or less and teams were working on an accurate tally of damage in the neighbourhood. Some houses were in ruins while homes next door were intact.
Eric Durtschi stood outside his destroyed house, where a burned-out car stood in the driveway and bicycles were strewn about. Durtschi, his wife and six children had moved in just a few weeks ago. A neighbour’s home across the street was spared. The man had stayed through the night spraying down other people’s houses. Elsewhere, firefighters increased containment of a central San Diego County fire that rapidly spread over 162ha, destroyed 18 structures and damaged eight, and a blaze in the San Bernardino National Forest was holding at 404 ha and forced evacuation of about 700 homes. Fires also burned on the Marine Corps’ sprawling Camp Pendleton base in northern San Diego County.