Tag Archives: Fire

Fierce winds stir deadly California wildfires as teams search for victims

Fierce winds stir deadly California wildfires as teams search for victims

By Noel Randewich

SONOMA, Calif. (Reuters) – Fierce winds were expected to stir wildfires and test firefighters on Saturday in Northern California where the most lethal outbreak of wildfires in state history has killed 35 people and forced more than 90,000 residents from their homes.

The wind-driven blazes, which erupted on Sunday night in the heart of California’s renowned wine country, north of San Francisco, have destroyed an estimated 5,700 homes.

A total of 17 major wildfires – some encompassing several smaller blazes merged together – had consumed nearly 222,000 acres of dry brush, grasslands and trees across eight counties.

Ground crews on Friday gained ground on the wildfires on Friday as they raced to clear drought-parched vegetation along the southern flanks of fires, removing highly combustible fuels adjacent to populated areas before extreme heat and winds were forecast to revive over the weekend.

Winds were to intensify overnight and into Saturday with gusts of up to 55 mph (90 kph) along with 10 percent humidity, the service warned.

“If new fires start they could spread extremely rapidly,” said Brooke Bingaman, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Sacramento, California in a video posted on Facebook. “Those fuels are super dry right now. This also could cause problems for the current wildfires and the firefighters who are trying to suppress them.”

Wildfire ripped through the Sonoma County town of Santa Rosa, where whole neighborhoods were reduced to landscapes of gray ash, smoldering debris and burned-out vehicles.

The 35 confirmed fatalities – 19 in Sonoma County – mark the greatest loss of life from a single fire event on record in California, surpassing the 29 deaths from the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles.

Some victims were asleep when flames engulfed their homes, and many survivors had only minutes to flee.

With 235 people still missing on Friday in Sonoma County alone, and rubble from thousands of incinerated dwellings yet to be searched, authorities have said the number of fatalities from the so-called North Bay fires would likely climb.

The fires have thrown California’s wine-producing industry, and related tourism, into disarray at the end of the region’s annual grape harvest, damaging or destroying at least a dozen Napa Valley wineries.

Some 45 search-and-rescue teams and 18 detectives were deployed to scour obliterated neighborhoods for victims.

More than 90,000 residents have been evacuated, said Jaime Williams, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Governor Jerry Brown planned to visit the area with California’s two U.S. senators on Saturday.

“We’ll keep working day and night with our local and federal partners to fight these fires and help residents get back on their feet in these trying times,” he said in a statement.

Officials have said power lines toppled by gale-force winds the first night may have sparked the conflagration, though the official cause remained under investigation.

The picturesque town of Calistoga, at the northern end of Napa Valley, faced one of the biggest remaining hazards. Its 5,000-plus residents were ordered from their homes on Wednesday night as a fierce blaze dubbed the Tubbs fire crept to within 2 miles (3.2 km) of city limits.

On Friday, fires raged along mountain ridges overlooking Calistoga, threatening to rain embers onto the resort and spa destination if strong winds blow out of the north as predicted, Cal Fire spokesman Dennis Rein said.

“It’s surreal. It’s eerie,” Mayor Chris Canning told a local ABC affiliate as he surveyed the empty town on Friday. “It’s calm now and it’s giving Cal Fire an opportunity to really bang it down.”

The year’s wildfire season is one of the worst in history in the United States, with nearly 8.6 million acres (3.5 million hectares) burned, just behind 2012, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

(Additional reporting by Stephen Lam, Dan Whitcomb, Steve Gorman and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Calif.,; Gina Cherelus in New York, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Heather Somerville in San Francisco, Editing by Adrian Croft)

California woman rescues horses, yaks and cows from deadly wildfires

FILE PHOTO: A horse is seen along Highway 12 during the Nuns Fire in Sonoma, California, U.S., October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam/File Photo

By Sharon Bernstein

(Reuters) – The acrid smell of smoke borne on hurricane-strength winds greeted horse trainer Rebecca Cushman before dawn, her phone ringing repeatedly as people frantically sought help saving their animals from California’s deadly wildfires.

It was still dark on Monday morning when Cushman, 41, set out from her farm west of the conflagration, towing a four-horse trailer behind her white Dodge pickup truck.

She worked all day and into the night, loading four horses at a time from fire-ravaged farms and ranches in Sonoma and Napa counties, taking the animals back to her farm in West Petaluma before going out for more.

By Thursday, she had helped rescue 48 horses, several cows and even some yaks in the bucolic vineyard and farm country north of San Francisco hit by the state’s deadliest wildfires in nearly a century.

“We have dogs, goats, guinea fowl, chickens, ducks, donkeys, miniature horses and horses at our farm right now,” Cushman said on Thursday. “I just finished helping load yaks and cows.”

Firefighters began to gain ground on Thursday against blazes that have killed at least 31 people in Northern California and left hundreds missing amid mass evacuations in the heart of the state’s wine country. [nL2N1MO007][nL2N1MN1LB][nL2N1MN00H]

Animals are difficult to rescue in disasters like California’s fast-moving wildfires, as their owners must often choose between staying behind to care for them or fleeing to protect their own lives and those of their family members.

Some animals, including many rescued by Cushman, found refuge at privately owned farms outside the fire zone. Others were sheltered at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa.

The first calls there for help came in at about 12:30 a.m. on Monday, as winds of up to 75 miles per hour (121 km per hour) whipped fires throughout the state into dangerous conflagrations, said fairgrounds spokeswoman Leasha LaBruzzi.

By Thursday, the fairgrounds housed more than 300 horses, LaBruzzi said. It had also become a temporary home to 200 people who fled the fires with their pets.

POLICE ESCORT

Santa Rosa resident Christy Gentry, 43, who was staying at the fairgrounds, spent Monday morning helping round up and rescue horses at Mark West Stables, where she works, near her home.

She and her husband, Jeff, have no cellular service at their home, and their landline was knocked out by high winds on Sunday night, so they were fast asleep when the fires began.

They were awakened at midnight by the stable’s assistant trainer pounding on their bedroom window.

They ran to help evacuate the 26 horses that board at the stable. Christy Gentry’s job was to race out to the pastures, the sky black except for flames licking over the top of the mountain, bearing carrots to persuade anxious horses to come to the barn.

One, a dun-colored draft horse named Duncan, never liked getting into horse trailers, and he was particularly resistant that night.

As trainers and horse-haulers moved the animals, volunteers brought feed and hay. Cushman asked for contributions to her account at a local feed store, and quickly raised $8,000.

Exhausted, with a headache from the smoke, Cushman said on Thursday the size and unpredictability of the fires made rescues more chaotic than in past blazes.

She rushed to get to one property only to find the roads blocked. “We were later able to get a police escort to get those three horses out,” she said.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Editing by Peter Cooney and Lisa Shumaker)

California wildfires kill at least 31 as wind continues to fan flames

California wildfires kill at least 31 as wind continues to fan flames

By Noel Randewich

SONOMA, Calif. (Reuters) – Firefighters face another round of dry, windy conditions on Friday as they battle wildfires that have killed at least 31 people in Northern California and left hundreds missing in the heart of wine country.

The most lethal wildfire event in California’s history has killed people while they sleep in their beds and prompted authorities to evacuate thousands of residents, warning anyone deciding to wait it out: “You are on your own.”

An aerial view of properties destroyed by the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa.

An aerial view of properties destroyed by the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa.
REUTERS/Stephen Lam

The toll from the more than 20 fires raging across eight counties could climb, with more than 400 people in Sonoma County alone still listed as missing.

Winds of up to 60 mph (100 kph) and humidity of just 10 percent will create “critical fire weather conditions” and “contribute to extreme fire behavior” on Friday afternoon and into Saturday, the National Weather Service said.

A force of 8,000 firefighters is working to reinforce and extend buffer lines across the region where the flames have scorched more than 190,000 acres (77,000 hectares), an area nearly the size of New York City.

With 3,500 homes and businesses incinerated, the so-called North Bay fires have reduced whole neighborhoods in the city of Santa Rosa to smoldering ruins dotted with charred trees and burned-out cars.

A structure destroyed by wildfire smolders outside Calistoga, California, U.S. October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

A structure destroyed by wildfire smolders outside Calistoga, California, U.S. October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

The cause of the disaster is under investigation, but officials said power lines toppled by gale-force winds on Sunday night may have sparked it.

The Napa Valley town of Calistoga faces one of the biggest threats and its 5,000-plus residents were ordered from their homes as winds picked up and fire crept closer.

Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning said anyone refusing to heed the mandatory evacuation would be left to fend for themselves if fire approached, warning on Thursday: “You are on your own.”

Sonoma County accounted for 17 of the North Bay fatalities, all from the Tubbs fire, which now ranks as California’s deadliest single wildfire since 2003.

Some people killed were asleep when flames engulfed their homes, fire officials said. Others had only minutes to escape as winds fanned fast-moving blazes.

Mark Ghilarducci, state director of emergency services, said the loss of cell towers likely contributed to difficulties in warning residents.

As many as 900 missing-person reports have been filed in Sonoma County and 437 have since turned up safe. It remains unclear how many of the 463 still unaccounted for are fire victims rather than evacuees who failed to alert authorities, Ghilarducci said.

The fires struck the heart of the world-renowned wine-producing region, wreaking havoc on its tourist industry and damaging or destroying at least 13 Napa Valley wineries.

California’s newly legalized marijuana industry also was hit hard, with at least 20 pot farms in Sonoma, Mendocino and Napa counties ravaged, said Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association.

A sign left by an evacuated resident, fleeing wildfires in the heart of the California's wine country, rests against a fire hydrant in the evacuated town of Calistoga, California, U.S., October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Noel Randewich

A sign left by an evacuated resident, fleeing wildfires in the heart of the California’s wine country, rests against a fire hydrant in the evacuated town of Calistoga, California, U.S., October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Noel Randewich

(Additional reporting by Stephen Lam, Dan Whitcomb, Steve Gorman and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Calif.; Jonathan Allen in New York, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

At least 23 dead, hundreds missing, as winds fan California fires

At least 23 dead, hundreds missing, as winds fan California fires

By Alexandria Sage

SONOMA, Calif. (Reuters) – Firefighters struggled overnight to halt the spread of wildfires known to have killed 23 people in North California, preparing for winds to shift after one town threatened by flames evacuated all residents.

The edge of the deadly Tubbs fire was less than two miles (3km) from Calistoga, a Napa Valley community whose 5,000 residents left their homes on Wednesday.

Whether the town burns “is going to depend on the wind,” its Fire Chief Steve Campbell told Reuters early on Thursday. “High winds are predicted, but we have not received them yet.”

Tubbs is one of nearly two dozen fires spanning eight counties that, raging largely unchecked since igniting on Sunday, have left hundreds of residents unaccounted for.

They have also charred around 170,000 acres (69,000 hectares) of land and destroyed some 3,500 buildings since.

While their cause has not been conclusively determined, they are thought to have been sparked by power lines toppled by gale force winds, and fanned by hot, dry “Diablo” winds that blew into northern California toward the Pacific.

New advisory evacuations were also issued in Sonoma County late on Wednesday for parts of Santa Rosa, the largest city in the state’s world-renowned wine country, and Gesyerville, an unincorporated town of 800 people.

“The winds are predicted to be very erratic,” said country spokesman Barry Dugan. “There will be burst of high gusts that can be … very unpredictable and difficult when you are fighting a fire and also for residents who we are trying to keep posted.”

Wildfires have damaged or demolished at least 13 Napa Valley wineries, a vintners’ trade group said on Tuesday.

Around 25,000 people remained under evacuation on Wednesday as the fires belched smoke that drifted south over the San Francisco Bay area, where some residents donned face masks.

A burning structure is seen at the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country during the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa.

A burning structure is seen at the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country during the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa.
REUTERS/Stephen Lam

STILL MISSING

More than 285 people were still missing in Sonoma County late on Wednesday night, the sheriff said on Twitter. It was unclear how many might be fire victims rather than evacuees who not checked in with authorities.

In Santa Rosa, blocks in some neighborhoods resembled war zones, with little left but charred debris, broken walls, chimneys and the steel frames of burned-out cars.

The 23 recorded deaths make the fires the deadliest in the state since 1991, with Tubbs, which has accounted for 13 fatalities, the worst single blaze since 2003, according to state data.

In addition to high winds, the fires have been stoked by an abundance of thick brush left tinder dry by a summer of hot, dry weather.

Matt Nauman, spokesman for the region’s main utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, said many power lines had fallen during gales that packed gusts in excess of 75 miles (120km) per hour.

California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in several northern counties, as well as in Orange County in Southern California, where a fire in Anaheim destroyed 15 structures and damaged 12.

Smoke rises from a playground in front of Dunbar Elementary School during the Nuns Fire in Sonoma.

Smoke rises from a playground in front of Dunbar Elementary School during the Nuns Fire in Sonoma.
REUTERS/Stephen Lam

(Additional reporting by Stephen Lam, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Jonathan Allen in New York, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; editing by John Stonestreet)

Wildfires kill 17 in California wine country

Wildfires kill 17 in California wine country

By Marc Vartabedian

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (Reuters) – Firefighters battling wildfires in California’s wine country face the prospect of new outbreaks when dry, windy conditions return on Wednesday to an area where at least 17 people have been killed and 2,000 homes and businesses destroyed in blazes.

Gusts of up to 50 mph (80 kph) and 10 percent humidity are forecast for later on Wednesday and into Thursday for the region where 17 fires have forced 20,000 people to flee their homes, fire officials said.

“The potential for new fires that could grow exponentially as these fires did in such a short time period is there,” said Lynne Tolmachoff, spokeswoman for California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The weather gave firefighters a reprieve on Tuesday as cooler temperatures, lower winds and coastal fog allowed them to make headway against the fires that had burned 115,000 acres.

Some evacuations in Nevada and Yuba counties in western California were lifted on Tuesday while other evacuations to the east in Sonoma and Napa counties, where more than 50,000 acres burned, were expanded, Tolmachoff said.

Some 155 people were still missing in Sonoma County, although 45 others had been found and some of those unaccounted for may be due to confusion surrounding evacuations.

The city of Santa Rosa was particularly hard hit by the so-called Tubbs Fire, which damaged a Hilton hotel and destroyed a mobile home park.

Irene Fonzeca and her husband Luis were spending their second night in shelter on Tuesday after the couple woke up to raging fire nearby that was being blown toward their home on Monday.

The sound of fiery trees crashing down was terrifying, Luis said.

“We have no idea what’s there or if there’s anything to go back to,” Irene Fonzeca said outside the shelter holding a breathing mask as smoke and light ash blanketed downtown Santa Rosa.

In the shelter, emotions were raw, Irene Fonzeca said.

“People are crying hugging helping each other. It’s devastating,” she said.

In Napa County, the dead included 100-year-old Charles Rippey and his wife, Sarah, 98, according to the county sheriff’s office. The couple were married for 75 years, a CBS affiliate in San Francisco reported, citing their son, Mike.

Charles Rippey’s body was found outside where her bedroom once stood, he said.

“He was trying to get from his room to her room,” Mike Rippey said. “He never made it. Even if he had gotten there, he wouldn’t have been able to get her out … And there is no way he would have left.”

Napa Valley Vintners, a trade group, said it was too early to assess the economic impact of the fires. At least four wineries had suffered “total or very significant losses,” and at least nine reported damage, the group said.

California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in several northern counties where fires where burning and in Orange County in Southern California, where the so-called Canyon Fire 2 destroyed 14 structures and damaged 22 and forced the evacuation of 5,000 people, fire spokesman Thanh Nguyen said.

(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Keith Coffman in Denver, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Fire crews battle California wildfires as death toll creeps up

Fire crews battle California wildfires as death toll creeps up

By Marc Vartabedian

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (Reuters) – Firefighters battled 15 wildfires on Tuesday that have killed at least 11 people and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in Northern California while raging through the state’s world-famous wine country.

Efforts to control the fires were helped by the wind dying down on Monday, Brad Alexander, a spokesman for the governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said.

However, the death toll could still rise, he said.

Schools and colleges near the wildfires canceled Tuesday’s classes and two hospitals in Sonoma County were forced to evacuate, state officials said.

About 1,500 homes and commercial buildings had been destroyed, Ken Pimlott, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said on Monday.

Much of the damage was in California’s wine country north of San Francisco. Sonoma County bore the brunt of the fatalities, with seven fire-related deaths confirmed there, according to the sheriff’s department. Two people died in Napa County and one in Mendocino County, officials said. An 11th death was reported in Yuba County, NBC News reported.

Some 20,000 people had been evacuated from their homes since Sunday, officials said, while CNN said more than 100 had been treated for fire-related injuries, including burns and smoke inhalation.

The 15 fires broke out during the weekend and were fanned by high temperatures and dry conditions. They spread across some 73,000 acres (29,542 hectares), fire officials said.

The largest fire, covering 42 square miles (109 square km) and 39 square miles (101 square km) respectively, struck in Napa and Sonoma counties. The status of the grape crop currently being harvested there was unclear.

In addition to potential damage to vineyards from fire itself, experts say sustained exposure to heavy smoke can taint unpicked grapes.

Fred Oliai, 47, owner of the Alta Napa Valley Winery, said winemakers were nervous.

“You can’t see anything,” he said in a telephone interview. “The smoke is very dense.” Oliai had not been able to get close enough to his vineyards to see if flames reached his 90-acre property. “We got our grapes in last week but others still have grapes hanging,” he said.

California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Napa, Sonoma and five other counties.

That included Orange County in Southern California, where a wildfire on Monday destroyed at least a half dozen homes in the affluent Anaheim Hills neighborhood, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents, authorities said.

(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Keith Coffman in Denver, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Gina Cherelus, Jonathan Allen and Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by John Stonestreet and Bill Trott)

At least 10 killed by wildfires in California wine country

A DC-10 aircraft drops fire retardant on a wind driven wildfire in Orange, California, U.S., October 9, 2017.

By Marc Vartabedian

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (Reuters) – A spate of wildfires fanned by strong winds swept through northern California’s wine country on Monday, leaving at least 10 people dead, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses and chasing some 20,000 people from their dwellings.

The deaths marked the first wildfire-related fatalities in California this year, according to state officials, and are believed to represent the largest loss of life from a single incident or cluster blazes in the state in about a decade.

Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Napa, Sonoma and Yuba counties, encompassing some of the state’s prime wine-making areas, as the blazes raged unchecked and engulfed the region in thick, billowing smoke that drifted south into the San Francisco Bay area.

He later extended the declaration to include four more northern California counties and Orange County in Southern California.

An aerial photo of the devastation left behind from the North Bay wildfires north of San Francisco, California, October 9, 2017. California Highway

An aerial photo of the devastation left behind from the North Bay wildfires north of San Francisco, California, October 9, 2017. California Highway Patrol/Golden Gate Division/Handout via REUTERS

Sonoma County bore the brunt of the fatalities, with seven fire-related deaths confirmed there, according to the sheriff’s department. Two others died in Napa County and one more in Mendocino County, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).

Details on the circumstances of those deaths were not immediately available from either CalFire or local officials. But KGO-TV in San Francisco, citing unnamed California Highway Patrol officials, described one of the victims as a blind, elderly woman found dead in the driveway of her home in Santa Rosa, a town in Sonoma County.

Two hospitals were forced to evacuate in Sonoma County, state officials said.

Thousands of firefighters battled wind gusts in excess of 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) that have rapidly spread 15 separate wildfires across some 73,000 acres in northern California since erupting late Sunday night, according to CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant.

About 1,500 homes and commercial buildings have been destroyed throughout the region, Ken Pimlott, director of CalFire, said at a news conference.

A separate wildfire on Monday torched at least a half-dozen homes in the affluent Anaheim Hills neighborhood of Southern California’s Orange County, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents there, authorities said.

Firefighters work to put out hot spots on a fast moving wind driven wildfire in Orange, California, U.S., October 9, 2017.

Firefighters work to put out hot spots on a fast moving wind driven wildfire in Orange, California, U.S., October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

That blaze erupted along a freeway off-ramp and spread quickly in gusty winds to scorch at least 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) in a matter of hours, fire officials said.

Still, the fire in Orange County paled in comparison to one of the fiercer blazes in northern California, the so-called Tubbs fire, which by mid morning had scorched about 25,000 acres (10,117 hectares) in Napa and Sonoma counties, an area world-famous for its vineyards.

One evacuee, John Van Dyke, recalled standing in his pajamas near the 101 Freeway in Santa Rosa, watching a hillside in flames from the Tubbs Fire, when police pounded on his door in the mobile home park early on Monday, telling him to flee.

“When I got in the car to leave, a whole section of the mobile park was in flames,” he said. “It scared the hell out of me.” At least 5,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders in Santa Rosa alone, accounting for about a quarter of the region’s residents displaced by the fires.

San Francisco authorities issued an air quality alert due to smoke from the fires, which residents said they could smell since early in the morning.

“You can’t see anything, the smoke is very dense,” Fred Oliai, 47, owner of the Alta Napa Valley Winery, told Reuters by telephone. He said he has not been able to get close enough to his vineyards since he was evacuated to see if flames reached his 90-acre property.

In addition to potential damage to vineyards from fire itself, experts say sustained exposure to heavy smoke can taint unharvested grapes, and Oliai said wine makers in the area are nervous.

“We got our grapes in last week, but others still have grapes hanging,” he said.

The region threatened by fires overlaps an area accounting for roughly 12 percent of California’s overall wine production by volume but also where its most highly valued grapes are grown, said Anita Oberholster, a professor of viticulture and enology at the University of California at Davis.

So far this year, some 7,700 wildfires in California have burned about 780,000 acres statewide as of Sunday, CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant said.

About a dozen people lost their lives in a series of fires that swept San Diego County and other parts of Southern California in October 2007. Ten people perished the following August in the Iron Alps Fire Complex in northern California’s Trinity County, including nine killed in a helicopter crash.

 

(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Keith Coffman in Denver and Gina Cherelus and Joseph Ax in New York; Writing Alex Dobuzinskis and Steve Gorman; Editing by Tom Brown and Diane Craft)

 

Southern California wildfire forces 1,500 to flee homes

Southern California wildfire forces 1,500 to flee homes

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Crews were battling a major Southern California wildfire on Tuesday that has destroyed at least one structure and forced 1,500 people to flee their homes amid high temperatures and gusty winds.

The so-called Canyon Fire, which broke out in the Santa Ana Mountains east of Los Angeles on Monday afternoon, charred more than 2,000 acres by Tuesday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Some 900 firefighters had been called in to protect homes in and around the city of Corona, assisted by water-dropping aircraft and bulldozers, the agency said.

The Canyon Fire erupted during an intense fire season across the U.S. West.

Nearly 41,000 individual wildfires of all sizes have scorched more than 6 million acres in the United States so far this year, well above the 4.2 million acres burned on average over the last 10 years, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Manslaughter charges possible in London tower block fire disaster: police

FILE PHOTO: A member of the emergency services works inside the Grenfell apartment tower block in North Kensington, London, Britain June 17, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON (Reuters) – The criminal investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire that killed about 80 people in London in June could result in manslaughter charges, but any prosecutions could be months away due to the complexity of the forensic work, police said.

The 24-storey social housing block, home to a poor, multi-ethnic community, was destroyed on June 14 by a fire that started in a fourth-floor flat in the middle of the night and rapidly engulfed the whole building.

Police have formally identified 60 of the victims, but painstaking forensic work to find human remains, some of them tiny fragments, among tonnes of debris inside the charred ruin is ongoing.

Commander Stuart Cundy, who has overall control of police operations at Grenfell Tower, told reporters on Tuesday it was likely the final death toll would be a little below 80.

Detective Chief Inspector Matt Bonner, in charge of the criminal side of the police investigation, said a forensic examination of the tower would continue into 2018 and would be followed by lengthy laboratory analysis.

“I will seek to identify and deal with whatever offences come to light during that investigation,” he said.

“The kind of stuff that I would envisage we may come across would involve offences perhaps of fraud, misconduct offences, health and safety breaches, breaches of fire safety regulations and of course offences of manslaughter whether that be on a corporate or an individual level,” he added.

However, Bonner said this should not be taken as an indication that police had already found evidence to support any such charges.

The building, which was completed in 1974, was owned by the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, one of London’s richest, and managed by an organization that ran social housing on the borough’s behalf.

Bonner said police had so far identified 336 companies or organizations that were involved in the construction, refurbishment and management of the tower and officers had recovered as many as 31 million documents from all of those.

Police were now also investigating allegations of thefts from some of the less damaged flats in the lower levels of the building. There had been one confirmed theft of a considerable amount of money from one of the flats and three further allegations of theft, they said.

The thefts had come to light when former residents had been let into their apartments to pick up treasured possessions and say goodbye to their homes. Cundy said police had been shocked.

“All of us here, working down on Grenfell Tower or working on it anywhere, are just so disappointed that something like that can happen on the back of such a huge tragedy,” he said.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Stephen Addison)

London fire inquiry starts amid anger, despair of survivors

Demonstrators gather outside the Grenfell Tower public Inquiry in central London, Britain, September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner

By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON (Reuters) – A public inquiry into a fire that killed at least 80 people at London’s Grenfell Tower will get to the truth about the tragedy, its chairman pledged on Thursday, but critics said survivors of the blaze were still being failed.

The 24-storey social housing block, home to a poor, multi-ethnic community, was gutted on June 14 in an inferno that started in a fourth-floor apartment in the middle of the night and quickly engulfed the building.

Grenfell Tower was part of a deprived housing estate in Kensington and Chelsea, one of the richest boroughs in London, and the disaster has prompted a national debate about social inequality and government neglect of poor communities.

The inquiry started with a minute’s silence to honor the victims, whose exact number remains unknown because of the devastation inside the tower.

“(The inquiry) can and will provide answers to the pressing questions of how a disaster of this kind could occur in 21st century London,” its chairman, retired judge Martin Moore-Bick, said in his opening statement.

He said the inquiry was not there to punish anyone or to award compensation, but to get to the truth. A separate police investigation is underway, which could result in manslaughter charges. There have been no arrests.

The inquiry will examine the cause and spread of the fire, the design, construction and refurbishment of the tower, whether fire regulations relating to high-rise buildings are adequate and whether they were complied with. It will also look at the actions of the authorities before and after the tragedy.

But critics warned of a disconnect between the technical, legalistic inquiry process and the ongoing ordeal of traumatized former Grenfell Tower residents still awaiting new homes.

Prime Minister Theresa May pledged that all families whose homes were destroyed in the fire would be rehoused within three weeks, but three months later most still live in hotels.

Just three out of 197 households that needed rehousing have moved into permanent homes, while 29 have moved into temporary accommodation.

“We lost everything. It’s difficult for the other people to be in our shoes,” Miguel Alves, who escaped his 13th-floor apartment in Grenfell Tower with his family, told the BBC.

“Now I’m without anything, I’m in the hotel, I have to cope with my family. My daughter, she just started school. They need some stability and that I cannot give to my family,” he said.

FILE PHOTO: The spire of the Notting Hill Methodist Church stands in front of Grenfell Tower, destroyed in a catastrophic fire, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in London, Britain July 2, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: The spire of the Notting Hill Methodist Church stands in front of Grenfell Tower, destroyed in a catastrophic fire, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in London, Britain July 2, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

“BALLROOM DRIPPING WITH CHANDELIERS”

Emma Dent Coad, a member of parliament from the opposition Labour Party who represents the area, said the inquiry’s remit was too narrow and would fail to address the blaze’s deeper causes such as failings in social housing policies.

She also criticized the choice of venue for Moore-Bick’s opening statement, a lavishly decorated room in central London.

“We were sitting in a ballroom dripping with chandeliers. I think it was the most incredibly inappropriate place to have something like that, and actually says it all about the us-and-them divide that people see,” she told the BBC.

Many of those affected have also expressed disquiet about the fact that Moore-Bick and the other lawyers appointed to run the inquiry are all white and part of a perceived “establishment” far removed from their own circumstances.

“The experience of many residents of that tower is that they were ignored because of their immigration status,” lawyer Jolyon Maugham, who is advising some residents, told the BBC.

“We need someone on the inquiry team that can speak to that experience and at the moment on the panel we have a bunch of white privileged barristers,” he said.

One of the difficulties facing the inquiry is that it needs former residents to give evidence but some fear possible deportation.

The government has said it would grant a 12-month amnesty to anyone affected by the fire who was in Britain illegally. Supporters say only permanent residency rights will persuade people to come forward.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon and Elisabeth O’Leary; editing by Stephen Addison and Matthew Mpoke Bigg)