According to the local authorities, the Oak fire has recently spread “explosively”. Accordingly, it broke out on Friday and is now raging on an area of 4800 hectares of land. Other parts of the US are also in a state of emergency. There is an “extreme” heat wave in the center and north-east of the country. Record temperatures are expected.
The “Oak Fire” blazes mainly in the district of Mariposa, almost 300 kilometers east of San Francisco. According to the information, it has already destroyed ten houses and thousands more could fall victim to the flames. The fire activity is “extreme”, it says. More than 6,000 people were evacuated, according to a spokesman for the California Fire Department.
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the fire is not contained. More than 500 firefighters are deployed with firefighting helicopters, among other things. The “Los Angeles Times” reports, citing officials, that it could take another week for the fire to be contained.
Eddies of dense smoke
California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Mariposa County on Saturday. Eyewitnesses shared online photos of a huge whirl of thick smoke rising like a tornado over the forest. This dangerous phenomenon, a pyrocumulus or fire cloud, can further fuel the fire.
Suffering from a prolonged drought, the western United States has seen wildfires of exceptional magnitude and intensity in recent years. At the same time, the fire season is getting longer and longer. The fire brigades fear particularly severe forest fires this year. Other parts of the country are also experiencing an extreme heatwave, the peak of which may be yet to come. The National Weather Service warns of “extremely oppressive” temperatures in the eastern United States, among other places.
The massive fires on the island of Lesbos and in the Dadia National Park in northeastern Greece continued to rage unchecked on Sunday. On Lesvos, residents of the village of Vrisa were asked to leave the village. Several houses and cars have already fallen victim to the flames. The smoke on Lesvos was so strong that it could be seen from space. This was announced by the European earth observation system Copernicus on Twitter.
Meanwhile, in northeastern Greece, countless hectares of the Dadia National Park burned. The military and forest workers tried to cut aisles in the pine forests on Sunday and thereby prevent the flames from spreading further. Firefighting operations on the ground and in the air also continued. In the meantime, more than 320 firefighters with 68 fire engines were deployed.
Forest fires in Tenerife
Despite an easing of the situation in the past few days, the series of forest fires in Spain is not coming to an end. On the Canary Island of Tenerife, which is popular with tourists, the flames have already destroyed more than 2150 hectares, said Regional President Ángel Víctor Torres. 585 residents of La Guancha and four other communities in the north of the island have been brought to safety. Numerous foreign hiking tourists were warned of the flames at Teide National Park.
Source: Nachrichten
