Utility worker killed near Northern California wildfire
- by Kim Reid
- in Global Media
- — Aug 7, 2018
The 3,900 crews battling the Mendocino Complex on Monday were focusing on keeping flames from breaking through fire lines on a ridge above the foothill communities of Nice, Lucerne, Glen Haven, and Clearlake Oaks, said Tricia Austin, a spokeswoman for Cal Fire.
While supporting the overstretched California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), they "will be accompanied by experienced wildland fire strike team leaders and crew bosses from wildland fire management", NORTHCOM said in a statement.
With the fire still burning and containment only at 30 percent, the Mendocino Complex could top the Thomas Fire that burned in Southern California late previous year to become the largest in state history.
On Sunday, Trump tweeted Sunday that the wildfires hitting California are "being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren't allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized".
California Governor Jerry Brown, who visited some of the burnt areas on Saturday, said, "This is part of a trend, the new normal, that we've got to deal with".
He's proposing to eviscerate government standards on fuel economy, which would mean more emissions of greenhouse gases, and proposing to revoke a waiver allowing California to set its own, tougher standards.
The Cedar Fire, which burned through 273,246 acres in October 2003, is the third-largest in state history and is still the deadliest on Cal Fire's top-20 fires in terms of fatalities directly related to the fire (15).
Meanwhile US President Donald Trump has reiterated social media comments that the fires' spread is being "made so much worse" by California's environmental laws. It's unclear if this is directly connected to the fire, but PG&E; has been doing work to rebuild and restring power lines in the areas where the fire hit, so it's entirely possible that a line may have been de-energized as part of this continuing work.
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Gilless said Trump's language about water "being diverted into the Pacific Ocean", doesn't make sense, as water naturally flows to the ocean.
Further north in the Redding area, the Carr Fire, which is now 45 percent contained, has charred more than 163,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,000 homes.
But the other one is growing after spreading into the Mendocino National Forest. The number one spot belongs to last year's Thomas Fire, which burned 281,893 acres.
The president criticized Gov.
It burned so furiously on July 26 that it created what is called a fire whirl.
Overall, experts say Trump's Twitter remarks ignore two of the biggest factors in the wildfires: Climate change, which is likely exacerbating the droughts that lead to fires, and increased development near forests that makes the fires more risky to life and property.
This fire has killed two people and injured 11 others. It was 38 percent contained.
In addition, "the rates of mortality from fire, insects, and disease are about three times as high on national forest lands as they are on private lands regulated under California's strict environmental laws", he said. The complex is now only a couple thousand acres shy of becoming the largest in state history, and it has done so in a remarkably brief period.
