California’s Deadliest Wildfire Kills 29

The Camp Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills has become the United State’s third deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, killing 29 people in three days and more than 200 people still untraceable.

After three days of firefighting, nearly 25 percent of the fire is said to be under control, but high temperatures and winds made the weather more extreme and the fire to spread. So far the Camp Fire has destroyed around 7,000 structures in and around the mountain town of Paradise and which has been blamed for the most fire deaths since last week.

A large number of firefighters are deployed focusing on the Camp Fire, which is regarded as the deadliest fire in the state since 1991. In the year 1933, the Griffith Park wildfire in Los Angeles County killed 29 people.

According to Butte County, Sheriff Kory L. Honea who is also the county coroner said, referring to the Camp Fire “This event was the worst-case scenario, it’s the event that we have feared for a long time”.

The smoke which is like an orange fog has enveloped Chico and surrounding towns which also gave way to a low lying haze that spread all the way up to Redding during the last weekend, which is moved by a shift in winds. As the fire moved away, the authority has allowed the displaced residents to return to whatever was left of their homes, in many cases, they come back to find only ash and charred foundations of their homes.

Amidst the fire crisis, the US President Trump who is tensed between offering sympathy for displaced people and firefighters, started to lash out at California’s leaders accusing them of poor forest management.

“With proper Forest Management, we can stop the devastation constantly going on in California. Get Smart!”, he tweeted, which is followed by a large criticism across the country.

President of California Professional Firefighters, Brian K. Rice, also criticized Trump, saying his words are “ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines.”

As the argument continues, another fire erupted near Los Angeles, where about 200,000 people were displaced by the expanding Woolsey Fire, which began near Simi Valley, even as fire departments were responding to a second wildfire, the Hill Fire, which is west of Thousand Oaks.

The destructive fires are a result of global warming, which has dried out vegetation and has turned large swaths of grassland into a tinderbox.