Displaced may return as calm winds quell wildfire
REDDING, California: Fire officials in northern California hoped – if weather conditions allowed – to let more residents back into their homes yesterday as firefighters looked to gain more control over a deadly wildfire, the sixth most destructive in state history.
Calm winds were expected yesterday in the Carr Fire area, about 240km north of Sacramento, the National Weather Service said.
Temperatures above 37ºC and low humidity were likely to persist.
“Repopulation of communities affected by evacuations will continue as conditions allow,” The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) said in an advisory. The fire has claimed six lives, including those of two firefighters.
Gale-force winds had whipped the blaze into a flaming cyclone that jumped a river and roared with little warning into Redding and adjacent communities in the scenic Shasta-Trinity region last Thursday night.
Four people were missing in the fire zone as 16 people listed as missing turned up safe, a Redding police official said.
Some 965 dwellings and more than 400 other buildings were reduced to ruins as the blaze is now ranked as the sixth most destructive wildfire in California history, according to the CalFire.
A mechanical failure of a vehicle caused the fire, CalFire said.
Diminished winds on Tuesday helped some 4 100 firefighters gain significant ground on the fire.
They have cut containment lines around 30% of the fire’s perimeter, up from 5% during much of last week.
Still, the footprint of scorched landscape grew to almost 46 000 hectares.
The conditions allowed some evacuees to return home, though as many as 37 000 people remained displaced.
Lighter winds also gave a boost to firefighters battling two fires at the southern end of Mendocino National Forest, where some 12 200 people were under mandatory evacuation orders.
The Ranch and River fires have charred more than 32 000 hectares, with containment measured at 12% for the two together.
The Carr Fire stood as the most formidable of 94 wildfires burning across 13 US Western states, from Texas to Alaska, according to the National Interagency Fire Centre.
California, with 17 large active blazes reported, has been one of the hardest hit, with a volatile mix of double digit-temperatures, erratic winds and drought-parched vegetation fuelling intense wildfire activity. – Reuters/African News Agency