Homes evacuated as Californian wildfire spreads

Heavy plumes of black smoke and flames filled the sky after the Winding Fire started three miles south of the town

Families have been evacuated from a tiny community in California at serious risk from a raging wildfire.

A mandatory evacuation order was issued for Oregon House in Yuba County as the Winding Fire spread rapidly, California Fire officials said.

The Sacramento Bee reports that heavy plumes of black smoke and flames filled the sky after the Winding Fire started three miles south of the town yesterday afternoon.

The wildfire has already burned about 25 acres and is spreading rapidly.

The wildfire has already burned about 25 acres (Cal Fire)

A nearby region, just north of Oregon, is under an evacuation warning, an alert for people to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice, if it becomes necessary. Yuba County officials said residents with mobility challenges and those who have cattle should consider getting to a safe location immediately.

An evacuation center was in place at a nearby campground for residents displaced by evacuation orders or warnings, the Yuba County officials added.

Wildfires are also sweeping France and Spain

Once a rare occurrence, extreme fires are now becoming more frequent and last longer worldwide, fuelled at least in part by climate change, which exacerbates fires’ scale and intensity, even in winter.

In the first half of 2022, wildfires have swallowed acres of dry vegetation, towns and homes, and their number is likely to escalate as the world experiences further record-breaking heat waves and droughts.

Drought and heat waves tied to climate change have also made wildfires harder to fight.

In the Gironde region of southwestern France, ferocious wildfires continued to spread through tinder-dry pines forests, frustrating firefighting efforts by more than 2,000 firefighters and water-bombing planes.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes and summer vacation spots since the fires broke out July 12, Gironde authorities said.

A smaller third fire broke out late Monday in the Medoc wine region north of Bordeaux, further taxing firefighting resources.

Five camping sites went up in flames in the Atlantic coast beach zone where blazes raged around the Arcachon maritime basin famous for its oysters and resorts.