The wildfires in California, which have been raging for a week, continued to wreak havoc as the death toll now reaches 40. As authorities continue to battle with the flames, new evacuations have been ordered for the Santa Rosa area.
Local Mayor, Mr. Chris Coursey, said: "The fire that you're seeing today is in wildland areas. It's threatening the city but it's not blowing through the city like we saw the other night. … There's no cause for alarm but there is cause for some vigilance and preparedness. It's a difficult situation. It's not one for folks in Santa Rosa to be alarmed right now."
<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: Death toll in Sonoma County goes up to 22, raising total number of fatalities in N. California wildfires to 40. <a href="https://t.co/bt7xMcHq8C">pic.twitter.com/bt7xMcHq8C</a></p>— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) <a href="https://twitter.com/nbcbayarea/status/919359318381813765?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Fuelled by stiff winds, the fires raged on in the low humidity, with the dry air continuing to transform grass and vegetation into fuel for it as more than 10,000 firefighters from California and other states continued to battle it.
14 helicopters are in the air doing continuous water drops.
California Fire operations section chief Steve Crawford commented: “The wind has hit us pretty hard, and there’s a pretty good firefight going on in the field right now.”
A week after the fires started some 5,700 homes and business are in ruins, making this the most destructive group of wildfires in Californian history. Almost 300 people remain unaccounted for at this point, but officials believe they will locate most of them.
For most of the people living in the fire zone, all they can do is watch, hope and pray.
Mr. Randy Chiado and his wife, Barbara, were evacuated on Monday out of Santa Rosa. Just as their neighbors, they’re spending the nights in rooms set up with cots by the authorities, hoping for some news
Ms. Chiado said: "After so many times of 'It's coming, get ready. It's coming, get ready,' it just gets nerve-wracking."
Source:
http://www.wral.com/death-and-destruction-hope-and-heroism-in-california-fires/17016101/
