MONSTER FIRE IN CALIFORNIA RAGES ON
>> REDDING: A monster wildfire in northern California burned unchecked yesterday after it killed two firefighters, destroyed hundreds of structures and sent thousands of frantic residents racing from their homes.
Some 3,400 firefighters on the ground and in helicopters and airplanes battled the 48,300-acre (19,500 hectares) Carr Fire early yesterday as it ripped through Redding, a city of 90,000 people, in California’s scenic Shasta-Trinity area.
More than 38,000 residents in Redding and elsewhere in Shasta County fled their homes as the fire began to gain speed and intensity on Thursday, destroying 500 structures and leaving Keswick, a town of 450, in smoldering ruins.
The fire, which was only 3% contained after igniting six days ago, has been fed by high temperatures and low humidity, which were expected for at least the next week, said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) Director Ken Pimlott.
“This fire is a long way from done,” he said.
A bulldozer operator and a member of the Redding Fire Department were killed in the blaze. A Redding hospital said it had treated eight people, including three firefighters.
The flames erupted into a firestorm on Thursday when it jumped across the Sacramento River and swept into the western side of Redding, about 240 kms north of Sacramento, before gale-force winds during the night created a fire “tornado”.
“This fire was whipped up into a whirlwind of activity, uprooting trees, moving vehicles, moving parts of roadways,” Mr Pimlott said.
Firefighters and police were hustling door to door to usher civilians out of harm’s way, said Scott McLean, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).
California has had its worst start to the fire season in a decade, with 289,727 acres burned through on Friday morning, according to National Interagency Fire Centre (NIFC) data.
Governor Jerry Brown requested emergency federal assistance to prevent an “imminent catastrophe” as Shasta County tried to find supplies and water for evacuated residents and care for horses and cattle rescued from ranches and farms.
Wildfires have blackened an estimated 4.15 million acres (1.68 million hectares) in the United States so far this year. That is well above the average for the same time period over the past 10 years but down from 5.27 million acres (2.13 million hectares) in the first seven months of 2017, the NIFC reported.
Cal Fire said the Cranston Fire, about 177km east of Los Angeles had blackened 12,300 acres and was just 16% contained. Meanwhile, the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite, which has charred 46,675 acres, is 29% contained.
Five dead in shootout near Cancun resort town
>> MEXICO CITY: At least five people were killed and three others wounded in a late Friday shootout between police and criminals near the resort town of Cancun, a magnet for tourists on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, local officials said.
Around 9pm local time, unidentified gunmen opened fire after breaking into an enclosure next to a restaurant in Puerto Juarez, located some 16 kilometres north of the Cancun tourist area, the Quintana Roo state prosecutor’s office said.
“Of the five killed, one was a ministerial police agent,” the statement said, adding that the four others killed apparently worked at the site.
A police commander was among the wounded, and there were no reports of tourists at the site of the shooting, the statement said.
Millions of foreign tourists, especially from the United States and Europe, visit Cancun and other nearby resorts such as Playa del Carmen and Tulum each year.
Since early 2017, however, there has been an increased turf war between drug gangs in Quintana Roo.