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Tag: blaze

  • Mount Diablo Fire in the San Francisco Bay Area

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    (Credit: Andrew Zhou)

    On Sunday in the San Francisco Bay Area, a wildfire broke out near Mount Diablo State Park, igniting more than 800 acres of vegetation, and leading to the evacuation of 75 homes nearby.

    “I could just see it moving toward us,” Ann Hyde told ABC7 News. Hyde is a resident on Morgan Territory Road, located about 2 1/2 miles from where the fire first started. “The embers are all over the place, and they make me nervous. … We’ve never had anything this big before.”

    According to the California Department of Forest and Fire Protection, the blaze started Sunday afternoon at 1:15 PM. Temperatures hovered near 100 degrees and dry conditions lead to the initial ignition where it all started at the edge of Mount Diablo State Park. From there, the flames twisted around the side of the mountain, coiling upwards and creating a colossal orange mushroom cloud of smoke.

    The fire departments of Contra Costa County, Marin Count, and the East Bay Regional Park District showed up with more than 200 fire fighters to battle the blaze. Firefighters were tackled with the obstacles of the mountain’s high peak and spiraling terrain filled with dense woods and dry oak brush covered in fire. Breezes came in to fan the flames in untouched territories, creating new hot spots all over the peak. As the night sky seeped in, helicopters scrambled over and sprinkled blankets of water and retardant, making progress below on the northwestern side of the mountain.

    About 1,100 residents in the Clayton area were urged to evacuate, pack up, and take their essential items and pets. Residents were instructed to close and lock their windows and doors and stay off their phones unless it was an emergency. The area is home to many horses and farm animals, so volunteers sped up to assure the safety of the frightened critters, loading them up in stables and trailers and escaping the consuming fire.

    The evacuees then fled to the Clayton Community Library on Clayton Road. More residents are expected to take refuge in the library where they will meet with neighbors and plan sleeping arrangements for the remainder of the night.

    As of 4:26 PM, the fire has been 10 percent contained.
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    The cause of the fire is not known, but so far, no one has been injured.

    You can follow live updates of the fire via twitter @CAL_FIRE.

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    (Credit: Andrew Zhou)

  • 19 Firefighters Killed in Arizona

    Nineteen firefighters have been killed battling wildfires in central Arizona near the town of Yarnell.

    All 19 were part of an elite “hot shot” crew, a group of firefighters who hike miles into the wilderness to clear vegetation and dig trenches to halt a wildfire’s advance.

    At a news conference Sunday, Prescott Fire Chief Don Fraijo confirmed that the crew was part of the Prescott, Ariz. Fire Department. “We grieve for the family,” he said, “We grieve for the department. We grieve for the city. We’re devastated. We just lost 19 of the finest people you’ll ever meet.”

    The fire originated with a lightning strike on Friday and had spread to 2,000 acres by Sunday. The area has been experiencing gusty, dry, and exceptionally warm weather. Over 50 homes have been evacuated, and, on Sunday afternoon, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office order the evacuation of many residents of Yarnell, a small community 85 miles northwest of Phoenix.

    The 19 firefighters had been forced to deploy emergency fire “shelters,” essentially fire-resistant blankets meant to protect them from the blaze. According to Fraijo, the shelters are “one of the last fail safe methods that a firefighter can do. [The firefighters] literally . . . dig as much as they can down and cover themselves with a protective — kinda looks like a foil type — fire-resistant material — with the desire, the hope at least, is that the fire will burn over the top of them and they can survive it.”

    Fraijo went on to say that the emergency shelters may only offer a 50% chance of survival and that they represent “an extreme measure that’s taken under the absolute worst conditions.”

    This event is perhaps the deadliest such incident on record. In 1994, 14 firefighters were killed in a single event in Colorado. The 1954 “Rattlesnake” blaze in Southern California killed 15, and the 1949 Man Gulch fire in Montana killed 13.

    Prescott is one of the only towns in the US to have a hotshot team. The unit was founded in 2002, and the city has 75 suppression team members.