![]() ![]() 3, Cal Fire has responded to 4,200 wildfires that have burned nearly 100,000 acres. Nearly 7,500 structures remain threatened.Īs big as the Rocky Fire is, it”s not close to the size of the Rim Fire in 2013 that burned 257,000 acres in the Sierra near Yosemite and destroyed 11 homes and more than 100 other buildings, or last year”s King Fire west of Lake Tahoe that burned nearly 100,000 acres and destroyed 12 homes and 68 other structures.īut what this year”s wildfires have lacked in size and destructive powers, they are making up for in sheer numbers.įrom Jan. Late Monday, the blaze jumped Highway 20 in several places and was making a run to the north.īy Monday afternoon, the Rocky Fire was only 12 percent contained. It”s so dry that even in relatively mild but shifty winds, the Rocky Fire northeast of Santa Rosa burned 20,000 acres in a five-hour period over the weekend, a “historic, unprecedented rate of growth for a fire,” Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said Monday. As one UC Berkeley scientist who studies the Sierra puts it, the forests “are primed and ready to go.” Throughout California”s forests, vegetation is so dry and so dense that flying embers, which in wetter years would fizzle out, are igniting at the mere touch of grass or shrub. On Monday, it had grown to more than 62,000 acres - nearly the size of Sacramento at 94 square miles - and more than doubled the total acreage burned by wildfires throughout the state so far this year. This is the blaze that firefighters have braced for all year, the ferocious Rocky Fire burning near Clear Lake that has destroyed more than two dozen homes and hit with the kind of force long-dreaded because of California”s historic drought. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |