CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES KILL 10, DESTROY 1,500 BUILDINGS

Death toll is one of the worst in a decade

SANTA ROSA

FIREFIGHTERS battled overnight to contain wildfires in northern California, evacuating residents in the path of 15 separate blazes that have killed at least 10 people and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses.

The deaths brought the official wildfire-related toll in California this year to 13, the greatest loss of civilian life from a single cluster of blazes in the state in a decade, state fire officials said.

Efforts to control the fires, which swept through the state’s world-famous wine country, were being helped by more favourable weather conditions, said Brad Alexander, a spokesman for the governor’s Emergency Services Office said. However, the death toll could rise, he warned.

“Firefighters and emergency management workers were taking advantage of the winds dying down... and a lot of work is going to be done overnight and early morning,” he said on Monday night.

“The top priority is still the evacuations for the most active fires because life protection is the number one concern.”

Some 20,000 people had been evacuated from their homes since Sunday, officials said, while broadcaster CNN said more than 100 had been treated for fire-related injuries.

About 1,500 homes and commercial buildings had been destroyed, said Ken Pimlott, director People watching as a helicopter drops water in Orange, California, on Monday. (Inset) An aerial view of the devastation in San Francisco, California, on Monday.

of the California Forestry and Fire Protection Department.

Fanned by high temperatures and dry conditions, the 15 fires broke out over the weekend and spread to cover some 295 sq km, fire officials said.

The largest, covering 108 sq km and 101 sq km, struck in Napa and Sonoma counties, the heartland of California’s wine industry, leaving the status of the crop currently being harvested unclear.

In addition to damage to vineyards, experts said sustained exposure to heavy smoke could taint unpicked grapes.

Schools and colleges near the wildfires cancelled yesterday’s classes, and two hospitals in Sonoma County were forced to evacuate, state officials said.

Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Napa, Sonoma and five other counties. That included Orange County in southern California, where a wildfire on Monday destroyed at least a half dozen homes in the affluent Anaheim Hills neighbourhood, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents. Reuters