favored by an “extreme drought”, the winds and the temperature increases, the fire, fought by some 2,000 firefighters, burned at least 5,500 hectares of forest.
Le Monde with AFP
While a very strong heat affects tens of millions of Americans throughout the country, the violent fire that has been hit since Friday a Californian forest continued to extend Sunday July 24, which led to evacuation thousands of people.
The fire, called “Oak Fire”, extends near the Yosemite National Park and its famous giant redwoods. He “developed considerably in the northern part, moving further in the Sierra National Forest”, according to a bulletin from the Californian Forests and Fire Protection Disputed on Sunday. The Yosemite Park, one of the most famous in the world, has already experienced a fire in mid-July, whose flames had threatened its giant sequoias.
favored by an “extreme drought”, the winds and temperature increases, the fire, fought by some 2,000 firefighters, burned at least 5,500 hectares of forest, destroys ten properties, damaged five others and threatens More than 2,500, according to a spokesperson for the forest department. More than 6,000 people, mostly living in small localities at altitude, had already been evacuated on Saturday, according to another spokesperson for the California firefighters, quoted by the newspaper Los Angeles Times. The state of emergency was decreed by the Governor of the State, Gavin Newsom.
“It will be extremely oppressive”
The American West has already experienced in recent years forest fires of exceptional magnitude and intensity, with a very clear extension of the fire season, phenomenon that scientists attribute to climate change.
The “Oak Fire” is one of the most dramatic demonstrations of the heat wave that touches the United States this weekend in the northwest, the center and the northeast. a card of the national weather service (National Weather Service, NWS) shows a very large part of the country, including California, the south and a large part of the east coast, affected by temperatures between 37 and 43 degrees (° C).
“It will be extremely oppressive, especially in the large metropolitan areas of Washington in New York and Boston,” wrote the NWS on Twitter, which adds that, in the south, temperatures greater than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (more 37 ° C) will continue until at least Thursday.
The Dangerous and Intense Summer #Heat Continues On Sunday and here’s a look at the Apparent Heat/Heat Index Foreca… https://t.co/qzfcfqcmkt
– nws (@national weather service)
“Scientists have predicted these extraordinary and catastrophic events for decades now,” reaffirmed on the ABC News channel on Sunday, the former American vice-president Al Gore, who had received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his Commitment to global warming, adding:
“Today, they say that if we do not stop using our atmosphere as a trash can, and if we do not stop these emissions [of greenhouse gas] trap the heat, things go Enjoy. More people will be killed and the survival of our civilization is at stake. “