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2020-08-20 14:14
California wildfires have entered their second week, and on August 19, California fire crews continued to fight wildfires in the San Francisco Bay Area, and thousands of people were ordered to evacuate.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed 367 known fires on the anomalies they were experiencing and all of these lightning strikes, including 23 major fires as well as multiple sets of fires. "In contrast, we're fighting right now, we only put out more than 4,000 fires last year, so it's not surprising that this fire season is very active, this situation has been forming in many counties across California, and we declared a statewide emergency yesterday, which fundamentally helps us use resources to put out those fires," Newsom said. ”
Before dawn on the 19th, police and firefighters went door-to-door to warn residents to evacuate. Vacaville is a city of about 100,000 people between San Francisco and Sacramento, of which at least 50 buildings were destroyed.
Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Esik said: "This is an incredibly emotional and stressful time for most of us who have experienced multiple wildfires over the past few years. "Volcanic ash and smoke filled the sky over San Francisco, and wildfires were burning in multiple counties in the north, east and south, and by the morning of the 19th, the fires had engulfed 186 square kilometers.
Victoria Gregorych, a 54-year-old California resident, said her family loaded up their car and left their home in Vacaville after officers rang the doorbell to notify. The fire destroyed her home, but the house survived, and her neighbors were not so lucky.
Jonathan Cox, a spokesman for the California Fire Department, said about 22,000 people were ordered to evacuate in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties because the fires in the dense forest parks threatened the community. Cox said: "These are two counties belonging to very active timber fires that pose a serious threat to public safety and the buildings ahead. ”
Sonoma County Emergency Management Director Christopher Godley said about 10,000 people received evacuation orders as rescuers fought the two fires and efforts were underway to set up an evacuation center to provide alternate locations for people with covid-19 symptoms.
On San Francisco's East Bay, a set of 20 separate lightning-induced fires threatened about 1,400 buildings in rugged terrain surrounded by dense, strong winds and low humidity that make firefighting efforts challenging. The fire engulfed rural and forested areas near the San Francisco Bay Area, near Salinas in Monterey County, around the Oroville Dam north of Sacramento, forested areas west of Silicon Valley, remote Mendocino County, and near the Nevada state boundary north of Lake Tahoe.
There have also been several fires along the northern coastline of the Bay Area and Southern California. A series of fires in wine country Napa threaten the region, which just battled another fire last year that forced 200,000 people to flee their homes, a task that has been compounded this year by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the south, people ordered the evacuation of Boulder Creek, west of Silicon Valley, a community about 1,524 meters high in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where about 6,000 buildings were threatened by fire.
(Look at the news Knows reporter: Ren Meixing Intern Editor: Zhang Lei, US reporting)