FIRES SHOW NO MERCY
Rage on as Calif. toll hits 44 & gov warns ‘chickens coming home to roost’ on climate
Strong winds and parched fields continued Monday to fuel the Northern California wildfire that has killed at least 42 people — the deadliest in the state’s history, authorities said.
Across the Golden State, a series of wildfires have killed at least 44 people, counting two deaths reported over the weekend in a blaze in the Los Angeles area.
The death toll is expected to rise amid reports that hundreds of people are unaccounted for, with conditions showing no sign of improving.
Firefighters already hamstrung by two massive fires that grew overnight were hit by two new blazes that sprung up within five minutes of each other Monday morning near the massive Woolsey Fire burning in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The Woolsey fire is one of three major blazes burning across California. The fire had spread to 85,500 acres and was only 15% contained.
Over the weekend, the Woolsey Fire engulfed parts of Thousand Oaks, where the community is still reeling after a Marine Corps veteran shot dead 12 people in a country music bar last Wednesday.
Together with the smaller Hill Fire, which spans 4,531 acres, the Woolsey Fire has so far destroyed 179 structures, but fire officials say another 57,000 are threatened. The Hill fire was 75% contained, officials said Monday.
The third fire, Northern California’s Camp Fire, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains north of Sacramento, is the most destructive in state history and one of the deadliest. Paradise, a city of 26,000 people, was virtually burned to the ground.
The 42 Camp Fire victims — found in burned-out cars and in the smoldering ruins of their homes — exceeded the death toll of the the Griffith Park fire of 1933, which took 29 lives and was previously the deadliest in the state’s history.
The Camp Fire grew to 113,000 acres overnight into Monday morning, but did not advance in the direction of the populated areas of Oroville or Chico, Cal Fire officials said.
Across the state, 149,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes.
Officials were struck by the fires’ appetite for destruction. Usually, when wildfires strike, crews in Southern California can rely on help from their upstate counterparts to hit the road and pitch in. Not this time.
Northern California is battling big blazes of its own and has barely a body to spare, said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby.
Outgoing California Gov. Jerry Brown said the raging fires are proof positive that climate change — despite the denials — is real.
“The chickens are coming home to roost,” Brown said. “This is real here.” Osby agreed. “And as evident by the Camp Fire in Northern
California — which is larger than this, more structures have been lost than this, more lives have been lost — it’s evident from that situation statewide that we’re in climate change and it’s going to be here for the foreseeable future,” Osby said. The fires showed no mercy, not even to those often used to getting special treatment. Among those displaced by the fires were celebrities Miley Cyrus, Neil Young and Gerard Butler, whose homes were devastated by the blazes. “My house no longer stands but the memories shared with family & friends stand strong,” Cyrus tweeted of the home she shared with boyfriend Liam Hemsworth.
“I am grateful for all I have left. Sending so much love and gratitude to the firefighters and LA (County) Sheriff ’s department!”
In an Instagram post showing smoke rising from what used to be his home, Butler skewered President Trump’s comment over the weekend that poor forest management was to blame for the fires.
“California is vulnerable – not because of poor forest management as DT (our socalled president) would have us think. As a matter of fact this is not a forest fire that rages as I write this. We are vulnerable because of Climate Change; the extreme weather events and our extended drought is part of it,” he wrote.
“Our temperatures are higher than ever here in our hottest summer on record,” he continued.
“California is a paradise for us all. A gift. We are sad to not be able to defend it against Mother Nature’s wrath. We love California. We are not illprepared. We are up against something bigger than we have ever seen.”