Wildfires keep the heat in on California
LOS ANGELES: Three large wildfires burned in California and a fourth was growing quickly yesterday as a heat wave lingered across large swathes of the western United States.
The Creek Fire, which has engulfed the Fresno area in central California and caused the emergency evacuation of more than 200 people holidaying at a popular reservoir, was still not contained yesterday, fire officials said.
The blaze, growing under ‘‘extreme weather conditions,’’ had consumed nearly 32,000ha of land, while a cause remained under investigation, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) said in a statement.
Officials in Madera County issued evacuation orders and urged the county’s 157,000 residents to leave if they felt unsafe.
A hiker who had just embarked on a multiday trip when the Creek Fire broke out and had to find a way out of the blaze shared the harrowing experience on social media.
‘‘We’re safe and we’re out, but wow, we hiked our way out of the #CreekFire yesterday,’’ Asha Karim posted on Twitter.
The Oak Fire in Mendocino County started burning yesterday, according to CalFire. Three hours later it had torched 400ha and destroyed one structure.
Videos on social media showed the fire consuming pickup trucks as it spread along Highway 101 near Willits, California.
San Franciscobased power provider PG&E said yesterday it had begun turning off power in ‘‘high firethreat’’ areas. The outages would affect 172,000 customers in 22 counties, mostly in the Sierra Foothills, PG&E said, adding the shutoff was a safety measure due to the extreme high and dry winds.
In Southern California, east of San Diego, more than 400 firefighters battled the Valley Fire, which burned more than 6900ha in Cleveland National Forest. Video shared on social media showed firefighters dousing the flames, the air thick with ash and fire embers.
A fire in San Bernardino County, southeast of Los Angeles, that officials said was caused by a pyrotechnic device used during a gender reveal party, kept burning through the night and was 7% contained yesterday morning.