On Monday, August 1, firefighters in northern California are working to contain the state’s most destructive wildfire of the year, which has already claimed the lives of at least two people and forced authorities to evacuate thousands of residents after doubling its size throughout the weekend.
The McKinney Fire, caused by strong winds and thunderstorms, has burned over 52,500 acres (21,245 hectares) of the Klamath National Forest near Yreka and, according to the authorities, was still burning out of control as of Sunday night, July 31. Strong winds and thunderstorms have driven the fire.
Wildfires have been a persistent problem in California and other regions of the western United States for a long time. These flames result from years of drought made worse by climate change.
Although McKinney is the most significant forest fire in California this year, it is still less than the Dixie, which was the largest forest fire in California in 2017, consuming approximately 400,000 hectares of land. The McKinney fire started on Friday, July 29, near the border with Oregon.
On July 31, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office reported that firemen discovered two fatalities inside a burnt-out automobile in the driveway of a residence in the Klamath River settlement. The home was located in the Klamath River hamlet.
Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue told ABC that it appeared as though the couple was unable to flee because the flames trapped them.
According to the California Office of Emergency Services, more than 2,000 inhabitants of rural areas in the vicinity were given orders to evacuate, most of which were located in Siskiyou County.
The media quoted a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office of this county as saying that the fire destroyed more than a hundred buildings in the vicinity of Yreka, including homes, a grocery store, and a community center. However, the fire had not yet reached the city, which had approximately 7,800 residents.
“Everyone in the surrounding areas has to be ready to evacuate in case it becomes necessary. The official pleaded with the person to “please, do not hesitate to leave.”
According to the National Wildfire Coordination Group, around 650 individuals worked together to put out the fire on Sunday.
According to the Jackson County (Oregon) Sheriff’s Department, search and rescue crews safely removed sixty individuals hiking along the Pacific Crest Trail.
According to the California Incident Department (Cal Fire), an investigation into the causes of the fire is now underway.
According to the United States Forest Service (USFS), the dense smoke helped contain the fire’s expansion on Sunday but prohibited the launch of several of the planes used by firefighters to combat the blaze.
The McKinney fire began to expand just days after another fire, the Oak fire, caused thousands of people to abandon their homes near Yosemite National Park because it had burned scores of buildings.
There are still a few months left in California’s yearly fire season, despite the state having been in a severe drought for years.
According to scientists’ findings, climate change causes heat waves that are both more frequent and more extreme, increasing the risk of forest fires.
The temperature in Europe was unusually high on the 31st of July, which was a Sunday. A wildfire is now burning out of control north of Lisbon, while at least four firemen have been hurt in France while attempting to put out another blaze.
There were at least four persons hurt due to a fire that broke out in the east of Germany and required hundreds of firemen to put it out.