The Fire Factor: California Burns As Three Separate Conflagrations Devour As Many As 25 Lives And 180,000 Acres

At least 25 people have died and over 250,000 people forced to evacuate their homes with three major wildfires raging on for the past few days in California, The Washington Post has reported.

Out of the three major fires blazing in California, the deadliest one is dubbed as the Camp Fire, in the northern part of the state. It has so far killed 23 people and destroyed thousands of properties, burning 100,000 acres. The worst hit was the town of Paradise, home to 27,000 people. Close to 90 per cent of homes have been destroyed in the town.

According to a latest report, Camp Fire in Butte County has now grown to 105,000 acres, or 164 square miles and fire officials have warned that weather conditions were changing — for the worse — through Monday morning and were likely to exacerbate the blaze and make the firefight even more challenging.

The Woolsey Fire and Hill Fire in the southern part of California have burned 70,000 acres and 6,100 acres respectively, destroying more than 150 homes. Two people died in the Woolsey Fire overnight as it doubled in size.

The California fire season normally begins in late spring and lasts through summer. But hot, dry weather has persisted this year well into autumn, and the winter rains have yet to arrive. The Santa Ana winds, which blow out of the Sierra Nevadas and toward the western coastline, are building into howling gales that dry the vegetation and the soil, creating potentially explosive fire conditions.