Wildfires ravage California

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-1  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

MORE than a thousand wildfires were burning early yesterday in northern California in the United States, with no relief in sight for weary firefighters.

Fire crews inched closer to getting some of the largest of 1,420 blazes surrounded, said the state Office of Emergency Services. Some 147,500 hectares, or almost 1,475 square kilometers, have burned.

But a "red-flag warning," signaling the most extreme fire danger, was in effect over northern California yesterday. And the weather in the coming days and months isn't expected to help efforts.

Lower-than-average rainfall and record levels of parched vegetation likely mean a long, fiery summer throughout northern California, according to the Forest Service's state fire outlook released last week.

The fires burning now were mostly sparked by lightning storms that were unusually intense for so early in the season. But summer storms would probably be even fiercer, according to the Forest Service.

"Our most widespread and/or critical lightning events often occur in late July or August, and we have no reason to deviate from that," the agency's report said.

The blazes have destroyed more than 50 buildings, said Gregory Renick, state emergency services spokesman. More than 19,500 firefighters are battling the blazes and 926 helicopters have been used.

A lightning-sparked wildfire in the Big Sur region of the Los Padres National Forest has burned 109 square kilometers and destroyed 16 homes. The blaze has forced the closure of a 19-kilometer stretch of coastal Highway 1 and driven away visitors at the peak of the tourist season.

In Arizona, residents of a remote mountain community north of Phoenix were evacuated on Sunday as a 200-hectare wildfire moved toward town, but a late afternoon wind shift spared all but one structure in Crown King. Flames came within 2 kilometers of town yesterday morning.