Thousands flee Santa Barbara wildfires
LOS ANGELES: Santa Barbara County officials yesterday declared a local emergency as a fastmoving wildfire driven by strong winds and 40degCplus temperatures destroyed 20 homes and other structures and forced thousands of residents to evacuate.
The Holiday Fire, one of more than three dozen major blazes burning across the US West, broke out on Saturday evening near the beach com munity of Goleta, California, South of Santa Barbara, and raced through the seaside foothills.
The flames forced more than 2000 people to flee their homes, and left thousands more without power, prompting the emergency declaration which frees additional funds for the firefighting effort.
About 350 firefighters took advantage of a period of light winds early yesterday to con tain as much as possible of the blaze, which has burned through 20ha32ha, fire officials said.
‘‘It was a small fire but it had a powerful punch to it,’’ Santa County Fire spokesman Mike Eliason said. ‘‘We’re going to hit it hard today.’’
Winds were expected to pick up again as temperatures rose in the afternoon, he said.
Dozens of blazes have broken out across the western United States, fanned by scorching heat, winds and low humidity in a particularly intense fire season.
This year’s fires had burned more than 1.17 million ha by late on Saturday
On Friday, the remains of an unidentified person were found near a home burned to the ground by the Klamathon fire, which broke out on Friday near California’s border with Oregon. — Reuters