Tens of thousands of displaced Californians huddled under evacuation orders in the midst of a heat wave and a pandemic on Thursday as lightning-sparked firestorms raged through dry brush, grass and chaparral around San Francisco Bay.
With firefighting resources strained to their limits by the heaviest spate of incendiary lightning strikes to rake California in more than a decade, officials scrambled to bring in reinforcements from out of state.
An estimated 11,000 lightning strikes, mostly in northern and central California, ignited more than 370 fires this week, spawning nearly two dozen major conflagrations that threatened thousands of homes and prompted mass evacuations.
"Everything is gone," resident Nick Pike told CapRadio in Sacramento after he and three neighbours lost their homes near the town of Vacaville, about 88 kilometres north-east of San Francisco.
As of Thursday, the biggest fires had collectively scorched more than 2,000 square kilometres. Scores of homes and other buildings were left in ruins. The Associated Press reported that the wildfires claimed at least five lives, citing statements by authorities.
A utility worker died on Wednesday while helping to clear electrical hazards for first-responders. Earlier the same day, the pilot of a firefighting helicopter was killed in a crash during a water-dropping mission in Fresno County.
Plumes of smoke and ash fouled air quality for hundreds of kilometres around fire zones, adding to the misery and health risks of residents forced to flee or those stuck inside sweltering homes that lacked air conditioning.
One of the greatest threats was posted by a cluster of fires roaring through the Santa Cruz mountains south of San Francisco, forcing about 22,000 residents to flee their dwellings and destroying at least 20 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).
Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California's oldest state park with redwood trees up to 2,000 years old, sustained extensive damage to historic buildings, the state parks department said. The nearby community of Boulder Creek, the park's unofficial gateway town, was also evacuated.
As the fire moved south, the University of California at Santa Cruz called for voluntary evacuations from its campus on the northern flank of the coastal city.
To the north, another group of fires raced through hills spanning several counties in northern California's wine country, about 56km south-west of Sacramento, destroying more than 105 homes and other structures, CalFire said.
A number of wineries in the region were forced to cease operations mid-harvest as evacuations expanded in Napa and Sonoma counties, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
Collectively known as the LNU Complex Fire, those blazes had blackened 53,000 hectares by Thursday, a day after residents of communities overrun by flames had to flee for their lives, four of them suffering burns.
Another group of fires dubbed the SCU Lightning Complex grew to about 56,000 hectares on Thursday about 30km east of Palo Alto, with containment reported at just 5 per cent.
The blazes raged amid a record-breaking heat wave that has baked California since last Friday, resulting from a dome of atmospheric high pressure hovering over the American South-west.
Meteorologists say that same high-pressure ridge has also been siphoning moisture from remnants of a now-dissipated tropical storm off the coast of Mexico and creating conditions rife for thunderstorms across much of California.
Most of the precipitation from those storms evaporates before reaching the ground, however, leaving dry lightning strikes that have only added to what was already a volatile wildfire season.
The American Lung Association warned on Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic has considerably heightened the health hazards posed by smoky air and extreme heat.
Inhaling smoke and ash can worsen the weakened lungs of people with Covid-19 and undermine the natural defences of those who do not have it, said Dr Afif El-Hassan, a physician spokesman for the lung association.
MATCH INFO
Jersey 147 (20 overs)
UAE 112 (19.2 overs)
Jersey win by 35 runs
Company profile
Date started: December 24, 2018
Founders: Omer Gurel, chief executive and co-founder and Edebali Sener, co-founder and chief technology officer
Based: Dubai Media City
Number of employees: 42 (34 in Dubai and a tech team of eight in Ankara, Turkey)
Sector: ConsumerTech and FinTech
Cashflow: Almost $1 million a year
Funding: Series A funding of $2.5m with Series B plans for May 2020
Asia Cup 2018 final
Who: India v Bangladesh
When: Friday, 3.30pm, Dubai International Stadium
Watch: Live on OSN Cricket HD
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Scoreline
UAE 2-1 Saudi Arabia
UAE Mabkhout 21’, Khalil 59’
Saudi Al Abed (pen) 20’
Man of the match Ahmed Khalil (UAE)
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
Muslim Council of Elders condemns terrorism on religious sites
The Muslim Council of Elders has strongly condemned the criminal attacks on religious sites in Britain.
It firmly rejected “acts of terrorism, which constitute a flagrant violation of the sanctity of houses of worship”.
“Attacking places of worship is a form of terrorism and extremism that threatens peace and stability within societies,” it said.
The council also warned against the rise of hate speech, racism, extremism and Islamophobia. It urged the international community to join efforts to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
How has net migration to UK changed?
The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.
It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.
The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
The latest available figure of 728,000 for the 12 months to June 2024 suggests levels are starting to decrease.
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