California battles multiple wildfires of historic proportions
CALIFORNIA – Fire-fighters are struggling to slow the spread of wildfires that have torched nearly one million acres in California and are growing further, forcing more than 119,000 people from their homes and testing the state’s fire-fighting abilities.
There are 13,700 fire-fighters currently battling the blazes, but they are up against an extraordinary foe: Two groups of wildfires have swelled to become the second- and third-largest blazes the state has seen, and they are still growing. Those are among two dozen major fires pulling fire-fighters in all directions, forcing Gov. Gavin Newsom to request more fire-fighters from as far away as the East Coast and Australia.
It may get worse. Fire officials are worried that another extreme period of lightning strikes — like the 12,000 strikes that are blamed for igniting many of the 585 new fires since last weekend — could roll through Northern California on Sunday (23) and into the coming week, potentially bringing new blazes to an already-burning region. The fires have already burned through an area of land larger than Rhode Island.
The group of fires known as the LNU Lightning Complex in Napa Valley — the second-largest in California history — has burned through 314,207 acres and consumed 560 homes and other buildings. Cal Fire, the state’s fire-fighting agency, said that group of fires was its top priority, but in a sign of how stretched the agency is, only 1,400 fire-fighters were assigned to battle it Saturday afternoon, fire officials said, and it was 15% contained. Chief Sean Kavanaugh, the incident commander, said about 5,000 fire-fighters were assigned to the Mendocino Complex fire in 2018, the largest fire recorded in the state.
The CZU Lightning Complex north of Santa Cruz has led fire officials to order 77,000 people in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties to evacuate, including the entire University of California, Santa Cruz, campus. That group of fires has grown to 63,000 acres, consumed almost 100 buildings and is 5% contained.
East of Silicon Valley, the SCU Lightning Complex group of about 20 fires — largely burning in less-populated areas — has grown to 291,968 acres and is now the third-largest in state history. It is 10% contained.
California sees dry lightning storms about every 15 years, but the most recent one was unusual because it struck a highly populated area, said Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at the University of California, Berkeley.
“This time the bull’s-eye was right on the Bay Area, with so many people,” Stephens said. “If we see that again on Sunday that will be very, very difficult.”
The National Weather Service in the Bay Area issued a fire weather watch from Sunday morning until Tuesday (25) for the entire San Francisco Bay Area and Central Coast because of the possibility of storms. The National Weather Service in Sacramento also announced a watch from the capital up to Lassen County.
Lightning strikes from dry storms often cause “holdover fires” that materialize days and weeks after the initial bolts, Stephens said. Holdover fires from last weekend’s storms may still pop up for several weeks, he said, and new ones will likely form if additional storms arrive in the coming days.
-New York Times