Thousands evacuate as California wildfire rages
Al Jazeera
Firefighters lined roads to keep flames from reaching homes as helicopters dropped water on a growing wildfire in northern California that has forced at least 26,000 people to evacuate, as the state and a swath of the United States are in the grip of a “record-breaking and dangerous” heatwave.
The Thompson fire broke out on Tuesday about 110km (70 miles) north of Sacramento, near the city of Oroville. It sent up a huge plume of smoke that could be seen from space as it grew to more than 14 square kilometres (5.5 square miles).
More than 3,500 acres (1,400 hectares) of grass and woodland have since been consumed by the blaze.
Oroville is near Paradise, a community that was razed in 2018 by the deadliest fire in California’s history that killed 85 people.
Climate scientists say the western US is undergoing a decades-long aridification as weather patterns change, at least in part because of human-caused global warming.
