State of emergency declared in California due to fires

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in five counties on Sunday due to wildfires.

The counties included Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, San Bernardino and San Diego, the governor’s office said in a statement late on Sunday.

The declaration was prompted by the Creek Fire that started on Friday night and rapidly grew to burn some 45,000 acres (18,210 hectares), forcing evacuations and road closures in the Fresno area in central California.

Eight people have been killed and some 3,300 structures have been destroyed over the past three weeks in wildfires across the state.

Over 200 people were airlifted to safety overnight after a fast-moving wildfire cut off the only road out of the Mammoth Pool Reservoir, a popular recreational site in California’s Sierra National Forest.

More than 200 people were airlifted to safety overnight after a fast-moving wildfire cut off the only road out of the Mammoth Pool Reservoir, a popular recreational site in California’s Sierra National Forest.

Twenty evacuees were taken to hospitals, the Madera County Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter on Sunday, as the Creek Fire that started on Friday night rapidly grew to burn some 45,000 acres (18,210 hectares), forcing evacuations and road closures in the Fresno area in central California.

The blaze was 0% contained on Sunday afternoon, while nearly 15,000 firefighters were battling some two dozen fires across the state, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).

Eight people have been killed and some 3,300 structures have been destroyed over the past three weeks in wildfires across the state.

Three major fires, including the Creek Fire, were burning in Fresno, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, the agency said in a statement, adding it had increased staffing in preparation for “critical fire weather.”

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department issued a voluntary evacuation order on Sunday afternoon as the 5,350-square acre Valley Fire raged unchecked on the eastern edge of the metropolitan area of more than 3 million people.

“The sky is so thick by my house; the sky is a dirty brown cloud and I live about 25 minutes to the west of the fire,” Twitter user Cris Mel said in a post. “It’s kind of a struggle to breathe.”

A dangerous heat wave was baking swaths of the western United States through the weekend, and many locations in California registered record-high temperatures on Sunday.

The temperature reached 121 degrees F (49 C) on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles County, a record for the National Weather Service office that covers the metropolitan area.