The flames of a seemingly irrepressible fire are ravaging a large area in the north of California. In just two days, more than twenty thousand hectares of land were destroyed, a figure that makes this new emergency the most serious of 2022 in California and one of the fifty most devastating fires of the year in the entire United States. The firestorm, baptized McKinneydeveloped on Friday in Klamath National Forestin the county of Siskiyouon the border withOregon, and it fell rapidly southwards favored by the higher than normal temperature and the winds that blow along the Pacific. Two thousand people evacuated, another thousand waiting to leave their homes. The fire arrived on Sunday morning near the town of Yreka, which has almost 8 thousand inhabitants. A hundred houses and other structures have already been destroyed. According to the Medford Weather Service, the smoke reached a height of 11,000 meters. Teams of more than 600 men facing the fire have braced themselves for the possible arrival of thunderstorms as well as the hot and windy conditions that raise concerns about further spread of the fires as they try to protect remote communities.
California, devastating fire near Yosemite park: more than 6,000 people evacuated
The fire escalated in just two days after it broke out in a largely uninhabited area near the Oregon border. The causes of the trigger are still being investigated but the flames seem to have developed along the trees of the California Highway 96 and the burnt remains of a pickup truck were found in a highway lane. Thick smoke enveloped the entire area and the slopes as they blazed the hills in sight of the houses.
The governor of California Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency to obtain greater flexibility in measures in response to the emergency and to access federal aid. California law enforcement has knocked on city doors in Yreka e Fort Jones to urge residents to get out and safely evacuate their livestock on trailers. Automated calls were also sent to landline phone lines because there were areas with no cell phone networks. Scientists say climate change has made the West hotter and drier over the past 30 years and will continue to make the climate more extreme and fires more frequent and destructive. The Pacific Coast Trail Association urged hikers to get to the nearest town as the United States Forest Service closed a 177km section in southern Oregon.