California wildfire has destroyed at least 18 homes in northern Los Angeles County, sending so much smoke in the air that planes making drops on it had to be grounded for few hours in the afternoon. Flames raced down a steep hillside “like a freight train,” leaving smouldering remains of homes that forced thousands to flee the wildfire churning through tinder-dry canyons in Southern California on Sunday
County fire Chief Daryl Osby said, “For this time of year, it’s the most extreme fire behaviour I’ve seen in my 32 years career”.
Crews were battling About 300 miles up the coast, another fire spanning more than 17 square miles which destroyed six homes on Sunday and forced evacuations outside the scenic Big Sur region.
The Southern California blaze blackened more than 34 square miles of brush on ridge-lines near the city of Santa Clarita, and the authorities found a burned body in a car. No new measurements were possible, but the officials said that the fire might be doubled in size.
Planes could not make drops over the fire for a long time in the afternoon before starting for a few hours before dusk. Helicopters released retardant around the fire area all day and continued through the night.
U.S. Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy said, “The fire’s just doing what it wants right now. We have to stick back, let it do what it wants to and attack it where we can.”
Juliet Kinikin said that everyone was panic stricken as the sky became dark with smoke and flames moved closer to her home a day earlier in the Sand Canyon area of Los Angeles County. she told The Associated Press, “And then we just focused on what really mattered in the house,” Kinikin took important documents and fled with her husband, two children, two dogs and three birds. They were back at home on Sunday. She expressed, “breathing a big sigh of relief,”
More than 1,600 firefighters were battling the blazes. It also prompted a non-profit sanctuary to rescue exotic creatures to evacuate 340 of its more than 400 animals, including Bengal tigers and a mountain lion.
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By Prakriti Neogi
