A sudden brush fire has destroyed numerous luxury homes in California. According to the authorities on Thursday, around 1000 houses in the village of Laguna Niguel near Los Angeles are temporarily evacuated, about 20 mansions were a robbery of the flames.
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The sheer size of the property contributed to the severity of the fire, said Lisa Bartlett of Orange County: “If you look at the size of the houses, there’s just so much combustible material,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
The extreme fires are a result of climate change
Strong winds contributed to the fact that the flames quickly jumped from property to property. Fire Chief Brian Fennessy explained that the fire was a result of the extreme drought in California that has lasted for years: “We are watching fires spread like never before.” As of Thursday, the fire was still considered out of control.
Although are Forest fires not uncommon in California. One long lasting periods of drought and persistent heat, which, according to experts, are due to climate changehowever, large parts of the western US have been particularly vulnerable to in recent years Forest fires done, the fires are more frequent and more violent than in the past.
In California, average summer temperatures have increased by 1.6 degrees Celsius since the late 19th century.
The risk of forest fires is also high around Berlin
Despite isolated showers on Thursday night, there is still a very high risk of forest fires in southern Brandenburg due to the persistent drought. In the Elbe-Elster and Oberspreewald-Lausitz districts, the highest warning level 5 prevailed on Thursday.
There was also a high risk of forest fires in the Prignitz, Dahme-Spreewald, Spree-Neisse and Cottbus regions with warning level 4. “During the small interlude at the look, only the north of Brandenburg was able to catch a breath,” said forest fire officer Raimund Engel on Thursday on request.
In the south of Brandenburg it hardly rained at all on Thursday night. And in the north, too, it is expected that the moisture will only last until around Thursday afternoon, Engel said. For the next few days, it is expected that the risk of forest fires will increase again and that most of the regions will again reach high warning levels.
13 fires in Brandenburg since Monday
This season it already has 96 Wildfires spread across 18 hectares, Engel reported. Since Monday there are already 13 Forest fires: most recently on Wednesday in an area of 1600 square meters in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district and on Tuesday in an area of 2500 square meters in Oder-Spree.
All fires were quickly discovered by the country’s forest fire headquarters and reported to the fire brigade, reported Engel.
Year after year, Brandenburg is particularly badly affected by forest fires, because it often does not rain in the federal state, little or only very locally. The area around Berlin also suffers from the sandy soil, which cannot hold the rain for long. (AFP, dpa)
