New 'Dixie Fire' the latest in some 70 blazes raging across drought-stricken western U.S.
Record ID:
1627070
New 'Dixie Fire' the latest in some 70 blazes raging across drought-stricken western U.S.
- Title: New 'Dixie Fire' the latest in some 70 blazes raging across drought-stricken western U.S.
- Date: 16th July 2021
- Summary: PLUMAS NATIONAL FOREST, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JULY 15, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FIRE FIGHTING HELICOPTER OVER SMOKING HILLS (3 SHOTS) CLOSE OF FLAMES ON HILLSIDE TRAIN CROSSING THE HILLSIDE VARIOUS OF FIRE FIGHTING HELICOPTER OVER SMOKING HILLS (2 SHOTS) FIRE FIGHTING HELICOPTER SUCKING WATER FROM LAKE OR RESERVOIR AND THEN FLYING AWAY A HELICOPTER CARRYING WATER OVER SMOKING HILLS KLAMATH COUNTY, OREGON, UNITED STATES (JULY 15, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED BATTALION CHIEF OF PORTLAND FIRE AND RESCUE SAYING DURING PRESS DEBRIEFING: "You have so much heat and so much intensity that that plume raises, raises, and it's just billowing smoke. And in that smoke is all this heavy particulate firebrand's. That's how you see spotting up to several miles etc. Well, as that's building throughout the day, the sun sets, the temperatures go down, and all of a sudden that fire can no longer support that billowing tower, that plume. So it oftentimes will collapse all at once. So you get this, you know, five square mile plume (8 kilometers), that's 40,000 feet (about 12,200 meters) in the air that comes crashing down. Because now that it's not being lifted like a hot air balloon by heat, it will come crashing down and can create 50 mile an hour winds (80 kilometers) -- not gusts -- 50 mile an hour winds for up to 10 minutes. So that can absolutely wreak havoc on all the crews that are out there and all the structures that, you know, aside from 50 mile an hour winds, we thought they were safe. Now we've got 50 mile an hour gusts and all 'bets are off'." (WHITE FLASH) (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED BATTALION CHIEF OF PORTLAND FIRE AND RESCUE DESCRIBING ONE FIRE FIGHTING TECHNIQUE BEING USED: "What largely the zig-zag, the 'Hotshots', will do is they will then work up and down that road and light (ignite) the whole thing off at once. And because we're lighting off a small fire here, it doesn't get overwhelming. It doesn't 'spot' (jump) across the road. What it does is it burns the fuel between us and the oncoming fire. So when that 100 foot (30 meter tall) fire flame lengths meet this blacked-out section, the back burn section that we just created, we've taken the fuel from it. So now those hundred foot flame lengths might go down to five foot flame lengths (1.5 meters) and then just creep forward. And now it's more manageable for us. And so on these larger fires that's absolutely one of the key tools in the toolbox." (WHITE FLASH) (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED BATTALION CHIEF OF PORTLAND FIRE AND RESCUE SAYING: "All the massive fires you see in California, they're all wind driven. There's been relatively no wind here. So this is all just fuel driven. How dry it is, how low the moisture content is. And if it crosses a road that they're -- I want to say, don't quote me on this, but I want to say service road 34 -- where they're really trying to hold that, if it gets across that road, it's going to get into 150,000 acres of beetle kill (forest). And it will be compared to what we've seen, which is extreme, it will beyond that extreme. A hundred fifty thousand acres of total beetle kill forest with moisture content in the single digits. And it'll be an absolute inferno that you'll continue to see from space." WIDE OF FLAT LANDS WITH BILLOWING CLOUD OF THE BOOTLEG FIRE IN THE DISTANCE THROUGH THE HAZE WIDE OF COWS CRAZING ON FLAT LANDS AS A PLANE DUMPS ORANGE FLAME RETARDANT IN THE DISTANCE NEAR THE FOREST AND HILLS DIGITAL CLOSE UP OF SHOT 11 TO SHOW THE PLANE BETTER HIGHWAY WITH STOREFRONTS AND FIRE FIGHTING TRUCK AND THE BOOTLEG FIRE SMOKE CLOUD IN THE BACKGROUND A FOOD TRUCK WITH THE BILLOWING CLOUD IN THE BACKGROUND FIREFIGHTING HELICOPTER TAKING WATER FROM OBENCHAIN RESERVOIR AND FLYING AWAY
- Embargoed: 30th July 2021 13:43
- Keywords: Bootlet Fire California wildfires Dixi Fire Oregon wildfires beetle kill forrest climate change firefighting inferno record heatwave
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,United States,Wildfires/Forest Fires
- Reuters ID: LVA001EM3AL3B
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Among dozens of blazes raging across the drought-stricken western United States, one newly ignited fire drawing attention on Thursday (July 15) was the Dixie fire, which erupted on Wednesday in Butte County, California, near the mountain town of Paradise, still rebuilding from a 2018 firestorm that killed 85 people and destroyed nearly 19,000 structures in the state's deadliest wildfire disaster.
The Dixie fire has charred about 2,250 acres (910 hectares) in its first 24 hours as some 500 personnel battled the blaze, which was spreading across a steep, rocky tree-filled terrain about 85 miles (140 km) north of Sacramento.
The Dixie fire is only one of 70 major active wildfires listed on Thursday as having affected nearly 1 million acres in 11 states, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported.
The so-called Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon ranks as the largest by far. It was also the sixth-largest on record in Oregon since 1900, according to state forestry figures.
Hand crews backed by water-dropping helicopters struggled on Thursday to suppress the huge wildfire that displaced roughly 2,000 residents.
The Bootleg fire has charred more than 227,000 acres (91,860 hectares) of desiccated timber and brush in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest since erupting on July 6 about 250 miles (400 km) south of Portland.
That total, exceeding the land mass of New York City, was 12,000 acres higher than Wednesday's tally. Strike teams have carved containment lines around 7% of the fires's perimeter, up from 5% a day earlier, but Incident Commander Joe Hessel said the blaze would continue to expand.
Other states hard hit by the latest spate of wildfires include Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
The situation represents an unusually busy start to the annual fire season, coming amid extremely dry conditions and record-breaking heat that has baked much of the West in recent weeks.
Scientists have said the growing frequency and intensity of wildfires are largely attributable to prolonged drought that is symptomatic of climate change.
(Production: Mathieu Lewis Rolland, David Swanson, Njuwa Maina, Mana Rabiee) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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