{"id":54292,"date":"2017-12-11T06:41:11","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T06:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=54292"},"modified":"2017-12-11T06:41:11","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T06:41:11","slug":"californias-thomas-fire-scorches-area-larger-than-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/californias-thomas-fire-scorches-area-larger-than-new-york-city.html","title":{"rendered":"California’s Thomas Fire scorches area larger than New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"

California’s Thomas Fire scorches area larger than New York City<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The most destructive wildfire raging in southern California has expanded significantly, scorching an area larger than New York City.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Thomas fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties has consumed 230,000 acres in the past week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fanned by strong winds, it has become the fifth largest wildfire in recorded state history after it grew by more than 50,000 acres in a day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Residents in coastal beach communities have been ordered to evacuate.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday, firefighters reported that 15% of the blaze had been contained but were forced to downgrade that to 10% as it continued to spread.<\/span><\/p>\n

“This is a menacing fire, certainly, but we have a lot of people working very diligently to bring it under control,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other fires hitting California are largely controlled, but 200,000 people have evacuated their homes and hundreds of buildings have been destroyed since 4 December.<\/span><\/p>\n

Evacuation orders were issued overnight on Sunday for parts of Carpinteria close to Los Padres National Forest, about 100 miles (160km) northwest of Los Angeles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Forecasters said wind speeds were expected to increase throughout the day, before dying down again overnight.<\/span><\/p>\n

The local fire department tweeted pictures of a wall of flames advancing on homes on the outskirts of Carpinteria early on Sunday morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, actor Rob Lowe, who lives in Santa Barbara, a city of close to 100,000 people, tweeted that he was praying for his town as fires closed in.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Firefighters making brave stands. Could go either way. Packing to evacuate now,” Lowe added.<\/span><\/p>\n

California has spent the past seven days battling wildfires. Six large blazes, and other smaller ones, erupted on Monday night in southern California.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Thomas Fire – named according to where it started, near the Thomas Aquinas College – is by far the largest of the fires.<\/span><\/p>\n

They swept through tens of thousands of acres in a matter of hours, driven by extreme weather, including low humidity, high winds and parched ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

The authorities issued a purple alert – the highest level warning – amid what it called “extremely critical fire weather”, while US President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday, California Governor Jerry Brown described the situation as “the new normal” and predicted vast fires, fuelled by climate change, “could happen every year or every few years”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several firefighters have been injured, but only one person has died – a 70-year-old woman who was found dead in her car on an evacuation route.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are also fears the blaze will seriously hit California’s multi-million dollar agricultural industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-42303203<\/span><\/p>\n

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