Madre Fire Explodes to 35,000 Acres, Becoming California's Largest This Year
The blaze, which started on Wednesday afternoon, is burning in a remote area in the mountains between the Central Coast and the Central Valley, in the Los Padres National Forest. It is near State Route 166, which connects the Central Coast to the southern San Joaquin Valley. A section of the highway has been closed, California's Department of Transportation said.
About 190 residents were under evacuation orders early Thursday, according to a New York Times analysis of the evacuation zones and LandScan population data.
Smoke from the fire was spreading over Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, the National Weather Service said on social media. Santa Barbara County issued an air quality watch because of the smoke, urging residents to stay alert.
Videos posted on social media by the U.S. Forest Service showed glowing red flames above the mountains and the sky thick with smoke. Significant resources had been deployed to the fire, including aircraft and bulldozers, the agency said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Madre Fire grows to 35,000 acres, California's largest wildfire this year
A wildfire in a remote part of San Luis Obispo County rapidly grew overnight and spread to over 35,000 acres by Thursday morning, officials said. Called the Madre Fire, the blaze started Wednesday afternoon in the mountains in a remote part of the Los Padres National Forest. Evacuation orders were in place with 5% of the fire contained as of Thursday morning, according to Cal Fire. A section of Highway 166 on the Central Coast was closed, according to Caltrans. The blaze is the largest wildfire the state has seen this year, bigger than the Eaton and Palisades fires in January. It is unclear how many people are affected.
Fast Company
2 hours ago
- Fast Company
Out of control wildfire on Greek island unleashes evacuations in homes and hotels
Firefighters were struggling Thursday to bring a major wildfire on Greece's southern island of Crete under control, hampered by gale force winds whipping up the flames. Thousands of people were evacuated from hotels and homes overnight after the fire started Wednesday afternoon in the Ierapetra area on the island's southern coast, officials said. The head of the hoteliers' association of Ierapetra and southeastern Crete, Giorgos Tzarakis, told local media about 5,000 tourists had been evacuated from the area, and that several homes and businesses had been damaged. By Thursday morning, 230 firefighters backed by 10 water-dropping helicopters were battling the flames advancing through forest and farmland. Gale force winds in the area, with gusts reaching about 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour, 'are constantly creating … new outbreaks, making firefighting work very difficult,' said fire department spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis. Two people were evacuated by boat overnight, while six private boats were on standby in case further evacuations by sea became necessary, the coast guard said. Nektarios Papadakis, a civil protection official at the regional authority, told The Associated Press overnight that tourists who had been evacuated from the area had been taken to an indoor basketball arena and hotels in other parts of the island. Several residents were treated for breathing difficulties, officials said, but there were no reports of serious injuries. The Fire Service and a civil protection agency issued mobile phone alerts for the evacuations and appealed to residents not to return to try to save their property. As fires crested ridgelines and edged toward residential areas overnight, the blaze sent clouds of ash into the sky, illuminated by the headlights of emergency vehicles and water trucks that lined the coastal road near the resorts of Ferma and Achlia on the southeast of Crete. Crete is one of Greece's most popular destinations for both foreign and domestic tourists. The risk of wildfires remained very high across Crete and parts of southern Greece Thursday, according to a daily bulletin issued by the Fire Service. Wildfires are frequent in the country during its hot, dry summers, and the fire department has already tackled dozens across Greece so far this year. In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on roads as they tried to flee. More than 100 died, including some who drowned while trying to swim away from the flames.
CNN
3 hours ago
- CNN
Wildfires are blazing through a Greek tourist hotspot, forcing mass evacuations
More than 200 firefighters are struggling to tackle an out-of-control wildfire on Crete — Greece's largest island and a tourist hotspot — as authorities order mass evacuations. The fire broke out Wednesday afternoon near Ierapetra, a town on the island's southeast coast, amid unusually high temperatures, 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9 Fahrenheit) above average, and gale-force winds of around 50 miles an hour. The conditions are creating 'new outbreaks, making firefighting work very difficult,' the Fire Department's press spokesperson, Chief Vasilios Vathrakoyannis, said in a statement Thursday. More than 230 firefighters, along with 46 vehicles and 10 helicopters have been deployed to fight the blaze, according to fire officials. The flames have spread rapidly, reaching homes as well as hotels and other tourist accommodations. Authorities asked residents of four settlements to evacuate and move toward Ierapetra. About 1,500 people have been evacuated so far, according to the Greek public broadcaster ERT. The Ierapetra municipality has converted an indoor training center facility into a makeshift camp, where hundreds of tourists and residents who abandoned their homes spent the night Wednesday. The police, medical services and the coast guard have all been called to the area. 'We are entering the third and most difficult month of the fire season,' Vathrakoyannis said. July is typically the hottest month in Greece and is often accompanied by strong winds. 'These conditions favor the spread of fires and increase their danger,' he said. Wildfires have ripped through other European countries this week as the continent endures a brutal heat wave. Tens of thousands were evacuated in Turkey as blazes ripped through the western Izmir and Manisa provinces and southern Hatay province, damaging nearly 200 homes. Blazes also broke out in France and in Spain, where two people died. Europe experiences wildfires every year, but they are becoming more intense and frequent due to human-caused climate change, which fuels heat and drought, both helping set the stage for fierce, destructive fires.
