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Firefighters have struggled to contain infernos across the western United Statesas experts warned that drought-striken California should prepare for an unusually intense wildfire season.
Forest fires are
a fact of life in much of California but have become far worse because
of bone-dry conditions, with the Golden State gripped in its fifth year
of drought.
A fire in the Los Padres National Forest had
expanded to two square miles (five square kilometers) yesterday, making
it the "largest since 2009" in the area, a spokesman for the Santa
Barbara County Information Center told AFP.
Strong winds were hampering efforts to contain the blaze, and the
operation was expected to be hindered further by near-record
temperatures over the weekend in the southern half of California.
Los Padres, which begins about two hours drive northwest of downtown Los
Angeles, is popular with hikers and campers, and evacuation orders were
issued in at-risk parts of the forest.
Sections of Highway 101, which links northern and southern California,
were temporarily closed while oil giant ExxonMobil evacuated its
refinery in Las Flores Canyon.
Another fire further north burned about four square miles and caused
road closures, also threatening buildings, although there were no
reports of injuries.
Lynne Tolmachoff, a spokeswoman for public information organisation
Calfire, said America's most populous state could see its worst fire
season on record this year.
Meanwhile, a blaze in Warren Creek, in the northwestern state of Alaska,
was raging across eight square miles of a Native American reserve,
while four fires were burning up more than 40 square miles in Arizona
and New Mexico. Read More
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