REDDING, Calif, Aug 2: Weary firefighters in Northern California on Wednesday were outflanking a deadly, 10-day-old blaze that has destroyed over 1,000 homes as authorities reopened more evacuated neighborhoods and the last few people listed as missing turned up safe.
Aided for a third straight day by diminished winds, ground crews extended buffer lines carved out of thick, dry brush along the fire’s edge to 35 percent of its perimeter, with partial containment lines continuing even farther, officials said.
That marked a substantial improvement from the weekend, when the Carr Fire raged mostly unchecked after laying waste to neighborhoods in and around Redding, a city of 90,000 people about 160 miles (257 km) north of the state capital, Sacramento.
Having scorched more than 115,000 acres (46,540 hectares), an area larger than Detroit, the blaze was the biggest of 16 major wildfires burning throughout California and the most formidable of more than 90 across 13 Western states from Texas to Alaska.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) commanders said the Carr Fire, sparked by a vehicle on July 23, was burning with far less intensity this week and no longer posed an immediate threat to populated areas.
“We are making good progress on the fire,” Cal Fire Deputy Chief Bret Gouvea told reporters at a mostly upbeat news briefing in Redding, adding that crews “still have quite a bit of work to do” in shoring up containment lines.
He also said fire authorities, utility crews and police were stepping up efforts to remove hazards such as downed power lines and ruptured gas lines to allow evacuees to return as quickly as possible.
“Repopulation is the theme,” Gouvea said. Redding Police Chief Roger Moore, who lost his own home in the fire, said social workers and clergy would be on hand to lend support to distressed residents.
‘VERY EMOTIONAL’
“We recognize that as people enter back into their neighborhoods, they’re going to know people, family members and neighbors that have lost homes,” Moore said. “It’s a very emotional period. It takes a toll on people.” As many as 38,000 residents were under evacuation orders at the height of the fire late last week. CalFire director Ken Pimlott said more than 32,000 remained displaced by various fires up and down the state. In another sign the crisis in Redding was ebbing, law enforcement officials said the last four people reported as missing among a list of 20 whose names were publicized on Tuesday were located alive on Wednesday. Six people were killed in the Carr Fire, including two firefighters, two children who perished with their grandmother in a house that burned, and a man who defied an evacuation order to stay put in another home that was consumed by the fire. Property losses so far have been put at 1,465 structures, including more than 1,000 homes, making the Carr Fire the sixth most destructive in California’s history. Most of the devastation occurred on the night of July 26, when gale-force winds whipped the blaze into a flaming cyclone that jumped the Sacramento River and roared with little warning into Redding and adjacent towns in the scenic Shasta-Trinity region. The inferno swiftly engulfed everything in its path as residents fled for their lives, many with only their pets and a few belongings. At a separate news conference on Wednesday, Governor Jerry Brown said the Carr Fire typified a “new normal” authorities are encountering, as large, extremely intense and swiftly spreading wildfires occur more often over a longer fire season. Fire officials said such blazes had been fueled by several years of drought-dessicated vegetation, and stoked by frequent and persistent bouts of erratic winds and triple-digit temperatures. Brown said the trend would likely worsen, if forecasts by climate scientists come to pass.
“We’re in for a really rough ride, and it’s going to get expensive, it’s going to get dangerous,” Brown said.
(AGENCIES)
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