CALIFORNIA (US) – More than 200 people were airlifted after a wildfire occurred in the only road out of the Mammoth Pool Reservoir, a popular recreational site in California’s Sierra National Forest.
Twenty evacuees were hospitalised, the Madera County Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter on Sunday. The Creek Fire that started on Friday night grew in no time to set ablaze around 45,000 acres (18,210 hectares). This led them to evacuations and road closures in the Fresno area in central California.
Jeremy Remington, while standing on a beach engulfed by fire in the Mammoth Pool Reservoir in a video posted on Twitter, “We’re completely trapped. There’s fire on all sides, all around us,” said. According to reports from local news, Remington was later airlifted to safety.
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire), the fire was 0% contained on Sunday afternoon. Nearly 15,000 firefighters were trying to deal with some two dozen fires across the state.
Late on Sunday, due to the wildfires, a state of emergency was declared in the Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, San Bernardino and San Diego counties by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Eight people have lost lives and some 3,300 structures have been damaged owing to the wildfires across the state in the past three weeks.
CalFire said in a statement three major fires, including the Creek Fire, were burning in Fresno, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department declared a voluntary evacuation order on Sunday afternoon.
Twitter user Cris Mel said in a post, “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. It’s kind of a struggle to breathe.”
The temperature went up to 121 degrees F (49 C) on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles County, according to a record for the National Weather Service office that looks at the metropolitan area.
“This is an historic heat wave for southwestern CA and one that will be remembered for a long time,” the service said in a statement.
State officials on Sunday recurrently urged Californians to switch off appliances and lights to prevent blackouts from an overwhelmed power grid.