A sudden brush fire has destroyed numerous luxury homes in California. According to the authorities on Thursday, around 1,000 houses in the town of Laguna Niguel near Los Angeles had to be evacuated at times, and around 20 villas were robbed by the flames.
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The sheer size of the property contributed to the severity of the fire, said Lisa Bartlett of Orange County: “If you look at the size of the houses, there’s just so much combustible material,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
Strong winds contributed to the fact that the flames quickly jumped from property to property. Fire chief Brian Fennessy said the fire was a result of the extreme drought in California that has lasted for years: “We are watching fires spread like never before.” As of Thursday, the fire was still considered out of control.
Wildfires are not uncommon in California. However, a long period of drought and persistent heat, which experts say are due to climate change, have made large parts of the western United States particularly vulnerable to forest fires in recent years, with the fires becoming more frequent and more violent than in the past.
In California, average summer temperatures have increased by 1.6 degrees Celsius since the late 19th century.
Despite isolated showers on Thursday night, there is still a very high risk of forest fires in southern Brandenburg due to the persistent drought. In the Elbe-Elster and Oberspreewald-Lausitz districts, the highest warning level 5 prevailed on Thursday.
There was also a high risk of forest fires with warning level 4 in the Prignitz, Dahme-Spreewald, Spree-Neisse and Cottbus regions. “During the small interlude at the look, only the north of Brandenburg was able to catch a breath,” said forest fire officer Raimund Engel on Thursday when asked.
In the south of Brandenburg it hardly rained at all on Thursday night. And also in the north it is expected that the moisture will only last until about Thursday afternoon, said Engel. For the next few days, it is expected that the risk of forest fires will increase again and that most of the regions will again reach high warning levels.
This season there have already been 96 forest fires on a total of 18 hectares, reported Engel. There have been 13 forest fires since Monday: most recently on Wednesday in an area of ​​1600 square meters in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district and on Tuesday in an area of ​​2500 square meters in Oder-Spree.
All fires were quickly discovered by the country’s forest fire headquarters and reported to the fire brigade, reported Engel.
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