Scorching temperatures on the Fourth of July fueled wildfires in California that raged through the night as forecasters’ warnings that the holiday season could be hit with dangerously high heat came true.
With much of the country in the grip of a heat wave that is expected to break daily temperature records and make conditions dangerously hot over the holiday weekend, a large, uncontrollable wildfire near Yosemite National Park has triggered evacuations and forced patients to die. hospital workers to shelter in place. .
The French Fire, in Mariposa County, California, began Thursday and was 0% contained as of Friday morning, having burned 791 acres, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection he said.
Nearly all of Mariposa City was under mandatory evacuation orders, with a large area to the east under an evacuation warning.
In a video posted to her Facebook page, Regina Lewis he said the “entire mountain above the High School is on fire” in the city of Mariposa and hit a predominantly residential street.
Other images taken in the area and posted on social media showed the sky lit up bright orange by huge flames, amid huge clouds of smoke. Another video showed a plane dropping fire retardant over a forested area near Mariposa on Thursday.
Nearly 3,500 energy customers were without power Friday morning in Mariposa County, according to the PowerOutage.us website.
In Northern California, the much larger Thompson Fire continues in Butte County, where it has burned nearly 3,800 acres and is 46% contained as of Friday morning.
The fire broke out Tuesday in Oroville, 65 miles north of Sacramento, and forced the evacuation of thousands of people, although the “vast majority” of the 17,000 people under evacuation orders or warnings were able to return home by Thursday. , said Kristi Olio, public information. Butte County official.
Lynette Bailey told NBC News on Thursday that she had to scramble to get her 90-year-old father safely to a nearby shelter.
“It was panic because my dad didn’t want to leave and I told him, ‘You need to get in the car now’.”
But since there are no more shelters for her dog, Bailey has spent the last two days outside in the heat. “Is very sad. I’m here and it’s 108 degrees…I’m more worried about my dad,” she said.
Many Fourth of July celebrations were canceled across California on Thursday as temperatures surpassed the 100-degree mark while places reached 110.
The Cal Fire and Butte County Fire Department said Thursday that a 61-year-old man named Harold Pulley was arrested Tuesday afternoon for allegedly starting a backfire, a small, controlled fire designed to help contain a larger fire, which was extinguished by firefighters.
“An individual was observed causing a backfire on a property located near Oro Quincy Highway,” authorities said in a statement. Pulley admitted to setting the fire with a propane torch and was arrested on charges of illegally causing a fire in a forested area.
Oroville was hit by the Campfire in 2018, which killed 85 people and displaced about 50,000.
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