Nearly 200,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes in California as firefighters battle several raging wildfires.
Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in San Diego on Thursday after a new blaze spread from 10 acres to 4,100 acres in just a few hours, BBC reported.
Three firefighters have been injured and about 500 buildings destroyed. One death has been reported —a woman’s body was found in a burned-out area in Ventura County.
But an official told the Ventura Country Star newspaper that the death, in the town of Ojai, may have been the result of a car crash not related to the fire. About 5,700 firefighters have been battling the brushfires, officials said on Thursday, with firefighters drafted in from neighboring states to help.
California is entering its fifth day battling dangerous wildfires driven by extreme weather: low humidity, high winds and parched ground. Authorities have issued a purple alert —the highest level warning— amid what it called “extremely critical fire weather”.
The powerful desert-heated Santa Ana winds have been fanning the flames.
