Emergency Management

Just one of the fires raging in Southern California has already burned an area larger than Detroit, fueled by winds nearing hurricane strength. Here’s a look at the numbers behind the state’s worst fire season ever. By BEN LAFFIN on Publish Date December 7, 2017. Photo by Hilary Swift for The New York Times. Watch in Times Video

nytimes.com - By JENNIFER MEDINA, MIRIAM JORDAN and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA - December 7, 2017

LOS ANGELES — Firefighters battled to hold back flames that on Thursday threatened tens of thousands of homes in Southern California and forced new evacuations, as officials implored residents to remain vigilant in the face of a rash of wildfires across greater Los Angeles that will quite likely not abate for days.

More than 200,000 people in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties have been told to leave their homes . . .

. . . Across seven counties, millions of cellphones shook and squawked with a warning of “extreme fire danger,” in California’s largest-ever use of a disaster alert system.

cnn.com - by Nicole Chavez and Eric Levenson - June 25, 2017

A series of wildfires is blazing across the Southwest as the chance of rain remains low amid a deadly heatwave.

Eighteen large fires are burning in the region, including six in Arizona, three in Utah, three in California, three in New Mexico, two in Nevada and a large one in Oregon. The two biggest wildfires are in southern Arizona and Utah.

Wildfires already have caused far more destruction than usual in the first half of 2017, meteorologist Haley Brink of the CNN Weather Center said.

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A firefighter hosed down burning pipes on Saturday near Santa Clarita, Calif. David McNew/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

nytimes.com - by Nick Strayer - July 25, 2016

As a large fire forced evacuations this week near Los Angeles, experts pointed out that wildfires in the United States are now more destructive and dangerous than ever.  The sharp increase in fire damage has been attributed to the warming climate, fire-management tactics and the nonstop construction of homes in fire-prone areas.

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Video: National Guard drops water on the wildfire in Lake County, California over the weekend. Video by Storyful Editor

nytimes.com - August 3rd, 2015 - Christine Hauser

National Guard forces dropped water along the edges of a raging wildfire over the weekend as more than 2,000 firefighters in Northern California tried to contain a blaze that has already scorched 60,000 acres.

The wildfire, nicknamed the Rocky Fire, started on Wednesday. It is the largest in the drought-parched state, where more than 9,000 firefighters are struggling to contain it and 20 other active wildfires, some caused by lightning strikes, according to a statewide summary published on Sunday.

The Rocky Fire has now spread to three counties — Colusa, Lake and Yolo — and prompted the mandatory evacuation of about 12,000 people.

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