Fire hell in California: Near Yosemite National Park, 2000 firefighters are fighting a massive forest fire.
The flames are relentlessly eating away at the land. Thousands of firefighters in the state of California (USA) have been trying to contain a forest fire since Friday. 17 fire-fighting aircraft and helicopters support the emergency services from the air. Some houses are already in ruins. Residents had to flee the fire.
California wildfire: “Zero percent of the fire under control”
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the fire was still not contained. This is reported by the AFP news agency. According to CNN, the fire exploded, destroying at least ten homes and damaging five others. “More than 3,200 buildings are at risk from the blazes, which remain zero percent contained, although authorities said they are making progress,” CNN summarized a statement from a California Fire Department spokesman.
More than 6,000 hectares of land are now affected. The region is a good 300 kilometers east of San Francisco, right on the edge of Yosemite National Park. The so-called Oak Fire rages mainly in the district of Mariposa.
California wildfire: governor declares state of emergency
More than 6,000 people were evacuated, according to a spokesman for the California Fire Department. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a “state of emergency” in Mariposa County on Saturday. Because the massive heat is expected to continue in large parts of the USA in the coming days. Forests and bushes are very dry. Gusts of wind keep fanning the flames. California, like the rest of the western United States, has been suffering from a drought for the past three years. Forest fires have been extreme in recent years. A powerful fire tornado was filmed during a forest fire in Northern California in 2021.
At the same time, the fire season is getting longer and longer. The fire brigades fear particularly severe fires this year. Fierce forest fires are also raging in several holiday countries in Europe. In Greece and Spain, emergency services and volunteers are fighting the flames.
Massive heat is currently affecting much of the United States. A heat warning was in effect over the weekend in more than a dozen states with a total population of 85 million. In regions in the middle and north-east of the country, temperatures are expected to drop slightly at the beginning of the week.
Heat wave in the USA: California has been suffering from an extreme drought for three years
In eastern Kansas, in Oklahoma and in parts of Missouri and Arkansas, 37 degrees and more are still expected. Also affected are the typically cooler regions on the northwestern Pacific coast, where temperature records could be broken in the coming days, according to the National Weather Service. Public cold rooms have been set up in several cities for the homeless and people without access to air-conditioned buildings.
Former US Vice President and climate activist Al Gore warned on Sunday of the consequences of the US Congress’ “inaction” in the face of climate change in the context of heat and drought in the United States. In an interview with ABC television, when asked whether President Joe Biden should declare a climate emergency, Gore said, “Mother Nature has already declared a global emergency.”
The situation will “quickly get much worse,” Gore told NBC in another interview. However, the recent extreme weather events could also be a wake-up call for members of the US Congress who have so far refused to take decisive action to counteract global warming. The “ever worse and more serious” weather phenomena have already “initiated a rethinking,” said Gore. (afp/ml)
