‘Devil winds’ whip up deadly California fires
SEVERE hot and dry “devil winds” kicked up yesterday in fire-ravaged Southern California and more winds were expected in the north, fanning the flames of wild fires that have killed at least 25 people, officials said.
“This is getting bad,” said meteorologist Marc Chenard, with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
“We’ll get sustained winds of up to 40mph (64km/h) and gusts between 60mph and 70mph,” he said early yesterday of the Santa Ana “devil wind” hitting the Los Angeles area, where the Woolsey Fire has been burning since Thursday in the tinder-dry canyon of Ventura County, claiming two lives.
The air-masses blowing across the western US deserts toward the coast are expected to bring the sustained high winds at least up until tomorrow, he said. “It’s nothing but bad news,” said Chenard.
Additional 64km/h winds will blow across the Sierra Nevada foothills in Northern California near Sacramento, where the so-called Camp Fire has claimed at least 23 lives.
The Camp Fire burnt down more than 6700 homes and businesses in Paradise, more structures than any other California wildfire on record, and the death toll, which could rise, also makes it one of the deadliest. Only the Griffith Park Fire in 1933 and Tunnel Fire in 1991 have claimed more lives.
Several of the bodies were found in or near burnt cars. The flames descended on Paradise so fast that many people were forced to abandon their vehicles and run for their lives.
An additional 35 people have been reported missing and three firefighters have been injured. |