Wildfire in California (Oct 2007)

Nature relents a little in California

Nature seems to have relented a little as the danger of further spreading of unprecedented forest wildfires raging in Southern California for the past 4 days is fast receding now. Weather forecasts have suggested that the hurricane strength Santa Ana winds, which initially caused the wildfires to spread far and wide causing extensive damage in its wake, seem to be dying out. Still, the firefighting work is going ahead on an enormous scale with about 8,000 firefighters, 1,500 national guards, 50 helicopters and 55 firefighting planes battling out the flames with no sign of rain so far.

One of the worst affected regions is San Diego where fires have caused damage on an extensive scale and thousands of home and property have been turned to ashes even as 300,000 people seek shelter from the fire. The fires are thought to have spread in as wide a region as from Santa Barbara in the west to the Mexican border covering an area of approximately 674 square miles. According to rough estimates, about 1 million people have been evacuated so far and the numbers keep on piling. With an estimated damage of about $1 billion, at least 1,596 homes have been lost to the wildfires. So far, three people are reportedly killed and another 20 are injured. The firefighting operations are trying their best to put out as many fires as possible in a somewhat advantageous situation they are placed in right now with the destructive force of the winds gradually ebbing out.

US President George W Bush is scheduled to visit California on Thursday to survey the damage. Seven counties in the state of California have already been declared as major disaster areas. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger expressed sincere appreciation of the commendable work being done by firefighting forces and the immediate response by local, state and federal agencies to take control of the situation effectively. Questions are again being raised on the extent to which the administration has learned from the past experiences even as California battles out the catastrophe to its best but some of the measures taken up by government after previous fire disasters have certainly helped save a number of lives in the region.