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HEMET – California firefighters were able to beat back a massive wildfire outside Los Angeles after a tropical storm brought rains and cooler temperatures, United States authorities said yesterday.
The Fairview Fire was 40% contained as of yesterday evening after forcing evacuation orders and leaving two people dead, fire officials said.
The blaze erupted on Monday at the midpoint of a ferocious heat wave in the southwestern United States, scorching 11,300ha and destroying more than 20 buildings.
The remnants of storm Kay, which made landfall Thursday in Mexico as a hurricane before rolling north up the Pacific Coast, brought rains that helped calm the fire.
“Fire activity has been greatly reduced due to the moisture from Tropical Storm Kay,” a statement from Cal Fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
Authorities warned, however, that the rains brought a risk of flash flooding and mudflows in areas where burned-out soil cannot absorb the sudden downpour.
“We could go from a fire suppression event into significant rain, water rescues, mudslides, debris (flows),” Jeff Veik of Cal Fire’s Riverside Unit said Friday.
The western United States is more than two decades into a historic drought that scientists say is being worsened by human-made climate change.
Much of the countryside is parched and overgrown, creating the conditions for hot, fast and destructive wildfires. – AFP, September 11, 2022