California
California Faces Its 2nd-Biggest Fire This Year—Forcing Evacuations
Topline
The Smith River Complex wildfire on the California-Oregon border grew to more than 47,000 acres on Wednesday, forcing residents in both states to evacuate as California sees its second biggest wildfire of the 2023 season, even after the southern part of the state was slammed with heavy rain from Tropical Storm Hilary.
Smoke and flames rise from the Smith River Complex Fire next to the closed U.S. Route 199 in … [+]
Key Facts
The fire remains 0% contained as of Wednesday morning, according to a state incident report, while more than 1,200 personnel are fighting the fire, including around the small town of Gasquet, which has been fully evacuated.
Northeast winds are expected to push the fire to the southwest, after it combined with two others—the Kelly fire and Holiday fire—that had merged into one fire on Monday.
The fire started on August 15 as a section of forest was struck by roughly 150 lightning strikes, causing more than 27 fires, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Despite heavy rain from Hilary, the Smith Complex fire is still “burning pretty hot,” and moisture from the tropical storm might not make much of an impact to quash the fires, National Weather Service meteorologist Merl Herlein told local ABC affiliate KRCR.
Officials in California’s Del Norte County (population 27,082) upgraded their evacuation order to level three, urging residents to leave immediately, while a level two evacuation notice is in effect in parts of Josephine County, Oregon (population 87,730), meaning residents should be ready to leave their homes.
Surprising Fact
California, which had been in the midst of a “megadrought” last year, has been spared from drought conditions after a parade of so-called atmospheric rivers dumped heavy rain and historic snow on the Golden State over the winter. Just over 25% of the state is in a state of drought as of last week, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s U.S. Drought Monitor—compared to 100% of the state at this time last year.
Big Number
93,078. That’s how many acres the state’s York fire grew to earlier this summer (more than 145 square miles) according to a state incident report, making it California’s biggest fire since August 2021. The Smith River Complex fire is the second-largest so far this season. The York fire, which started near the Nevada border, wiped out vast swaths of the Mojave National Preserve, which had been parched amid an early summer heat wave, creating a “ready ignition source” that allowed it to spread, according to officials. The fire devastated California’s famed Joshua trees, though no residents were forced to evacuate.
Tangent
The Smith River Complex fire comes amid a less active fire season in California, though fires in Canada have devastated the country from British Columbia to the Northwest Territories, burning an area larger than the state of Alabama in the country’s worst fire season on record. Nearly 20,000 people were evacuated from the city of Yellowknife—the capital of the Northwest Territories—over the weekend, while officials in British Columbia declared a province-wide state of emergency on Friday as the McDougall fire spread outside the city of Kelowna, home to more than 132,000 people. Fires have also devastated parts of Europe, with more than 200 active fires wreaking havoc this week in Greece, including some that have spread into neighboring Turkey and another threatening Athens, forcing thousands of people to evacuate, according to multiple reports. The Spanish island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, was also engulfed in flames this week, prompting authorities to issue widespread evacuation orders affecting more than 26,000 people.
Further Reading
California’s York Fire Spreads Over 94,000 Acres—Biggest This Year In Golden State (Forbes)
Canada Wildfire Latest: British Columbia Declares State Of Emergency, Yellowknife Fire Approaches City (Forbes)
Greece Wildfires: More Than 200 Fires Blazing As Devastation Spreads To Turkey (Forbes)