fire threatens thousands of people north of Los Angeles

Californian authorities on Thursday, November 7, asked thousands of people to evacuate in the face of a vast fire that destroyed dozens of homes and continues to worsen in the hills of the northwest of the Los Angeles region. The Mountain Fire broke out near the town of Camarillo on Wednesday. It is burning in an area where about 30,000 people live, according to Ventura County firefighters.

Its cause is still unknown, but the flames spread quickly thanks to powerful winds, with gusts of up to 130 km/h. It threatens more than 3,500 homes and has already consumed nearly 8,100 hectares. Authorities are currently trying to assess the number of homes destroyed. According to local media present on site, there are dozens of them.

After two rainy winters which provided a relative respite, California is experiencing a very active fire season this year. The vegetation reformed thanks to the precipitation of the last two years has dried up and becomes a powerful fuel. This summer, the “Golden State” suffered from several heat waves, signs of global warming. In July-August, it suffered the fourth largest fire in its history.

Dry fire hydrants

Ventura County fire officials said they are devoting all their resources to this fire. Helicopters dropped water on the area throughout the night. Several hundred firefighters defended the houses with fire hoses. The fight against the flames is so intense that the hydrants to which the fire trucks connect were dried up by demand at one point on Wednesday evening.

“We emptied the water systems”explained Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner during a press conference Thursday. This forced his teams to carry water to different homes.

The flames are driven by the Santa Ana winds, hot, dry gusts from the desert, typical of fall in Southern California. Local weather services issued an alert this week, warning of the risk of fires. These winds should gradually lose their strength on Thursday, before “a decrease” considerable in the evening, explained meteorologist Rich Thompson.

Power companies cut power to tens of thousands of customers in the area, a common strategy in California during high winds, to reduce the risk of new fires caused by toppled power lines.