Fire was less than two dozen miles from Lake Tahoe on Wednesday evening, at times burning 1,000 acres of land an hour
A wind-driven wildfire continued to advance towards Lake Tahoe, clouding the alpine vacation and tourist spot on the California-Nevada state line in a sickly yellow layer of smoke.
The Caldor fire on Wednesday evening was less than two dozen miles (37km) from Lake Tahoe, at times burning 1,000 acres (405 hectares) of land an hour.
Continue reading...The pristine setting of Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada border, was obscured by thick plumes of smoke as thousands of firefighters worked to contain the nearby Caldor fire, which has burned more than 120,000 acres. Tourists wore masks outdoors and ducked into cafes and casinos to escape the haze and the smell
Continue reading...The owner of a cabin which became surrounded by flames near Kyburz, California, managed to escape the Caldor fire after shooting the first part of this footage. The fire has burned more than 40,500 hectares (100,000 acres) in the north of the state since it started on 14 August, and more than 12,000 in just two days.
More than 500 structures were destroyed over the weekend by wildfire fuelled by warm winds and drought-stricken vegetation
We are in an emergency. Wildfires are raging across the world as scorching temperatures and dry conditions fuel the blazes that have cost lives and destroyed livelihoods.
The combination of extreme heat, changes in our ecosystem and prolonged drought have in many regions led to the worst fires in almost a decade, and come after the IPCC handed down a damning landmark report on the climate crisis.
But technically, there are fewer wildfires than in the past – the problem now is that they are worse than ever and we are running out of time to act, as the Guardian's global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, explains
Continue reading...Dry and windy weather hampered efforts to contain destructive fires that are devouring the bone-dry forests of drought-stricken northern California, as a small wildfire swept through a mobile home park, leaving dozens of homes in ashes and injuring at least one person.
Related: Grizzly Flats: the California town leveled by the Caldor fire – in pictures
Continue reading...Houses were reduced to piles of ash and cars to twisted metal as the blaze rushed through the El Dorado county town
Continue reading...The sky over parts of Nevada and California turned red and orange as the Caldor fire, which erupted over the weekend, exploded in size on Tuesday and ran through the town of Grizzly Flats, destroying many buildings and forcing residents to leave. Two were injured. Officials estimated that the blaze had blown through 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres)
As many as 1,200 firefighters and a dozen aircraft try to contain blaze in Var region
Two people have died during France’s biggest wildfire of the summer, local authorities have confirmed as the blaze continued to rage in the countryside behind Saint-Tropez.
At least one man is among the deceased, local prosecutor Patrice Camberou told the TV channel France 3. He said the other body, found in a destroyed home in the village of Grimaud, was too badly burned to identify.
Continue reading...Caldor fire explodes in size as Pacific Gas & Electric begins shutting off power to 51,000 customers
Critically dangerous fire weather was forecast across northern California from Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday evening, threatening to intensify several large blazes and increasing the risk of new ones, as a small rural town in the Sierra Nevada was ravaged by a fire that grew with devastating speed.
The Caldor fire, which erupted over the weekend, exploded in size on Tuesday and ran through the town of Grizzly Flats, destroying many buildings and forcing residents to leave. Two were injured. Officials estimated that the blaze had blown through 30,000 acres – up from 6,500 acres reported by the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) earlier that day.
Continue reading...The man had handed himself in to authorities, but was dragged out of a police van and set on fire
Algerian police have announced another 25 arrests over the lynching of a man falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires last week, taking the total number of suspects to 61.
The latest arrests were made in several provinces across the country, police said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the suspects were also accused of damaging public and police property.
Continue reading...Shepherd Giannis Tsiboukas, 36, confronts the ‘total destruction’ caused after a wildfire ravaged his land on the island of Evia in Greece. Tsiboukas lost more than 40 animals to the fire that destroyed more than 50,000 hectares. Peoples homes and livelihoods have been decimated.
Hundreds of wildfires have torn through Greece this month on the heels of its most severe heatwave in decades, which left its forests tinder dry. Other Mediterranean countries – Turkey, Italy, Algeria and Spain among them – have suffered similar problems.
Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme weather events.
Continue reading...Greek and foreign firefighters continued to tackle flare-ups in northern Evia from a blaze which has already burned more than 50,000 hectares of forest. Drone footage shows kilometres of charred, blackened hillsides and damaged homes in a region known for agricultural production as well as tourism
Continue reading...Twenty-seven killed in Turkish flash flooding, with southern Europe bracing for more extreme weather
The death toll from flash floods in Turkey has reached 27 and fresh wildfires erupted on the ravaged Greek island of Evia, as southern Europe braces for more extreme weather events caused by human-made climate change.
Record Mediterranean heatwaves fuelled blazes that have devastated parts of Italy, Turkey and Algeria, with Spain and Portugal on high alert, while Turkey’s Black Sea region has been hit by some of the worst floods in living memory.
Continue reading...Blazes raging in southern regions have ravaged mountain area of Calabria that is home to Unesco world heritage site
As with most farmers living in the remote towns of the Aspromonte mountain range in Calabria, southern Italy, Nicola Fortugno’s land was his life. The 79-year-old refused to be evacuated when flames engulfed Piraino, a hamlet surrounded by pine forest above the town of Cardeto, on Wednesday. Instead, he stayed at home to try to save his animals and crops. His burnt, lifeless body was found by firefighters.
“I used to see Nicola whenever he came to town to go to the chemist or see the doctor,” said Francesca Crea, owner of the newspaper shop in Cardeto. “His death is very painful as we’re a community of mostly farmers, people who make great sacrifices for a small patch of land – the animals are their treasures.”
Continue reading...Firefighters battled 300 different blazes across the southern regions of Italy, Calabria and Sicily in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Seven Canadair planes flew over the area, which has had 70% more wildfires than in the previous year, the majority breaking out in Sicily, Puglia, Calabria and Sardinia
Devastating wildfires have ravaged large areas in southern Europe as the region endures its most extreme heatwave in three decades. Several people have died in Greece, Turkey and Italy, with many more injured. Huge fires also have been burning across Peru as well as northern Russia, with smoke from forest fires in Siberia reaching the north pole
As flames approached, Kimberly Price fled her beloved California hometown of Greenville. An hour later, most of it was gone
After weeks of fire, smoke and warnings, Kimberly Price and her beloved town had run out of time.
With wind driving the Dixie fire directly into Greenville, Price’s longtime partner, John Hunter, told her she needed to leave. Price, 58, had spent most of her life in the close-knit Sierra Nevada community. She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving, but the flames were everywhere.
Continue reading...A video has been released by the Italian carabinieri military police showing a hidden camera capturing an arsonist starting a fire in the countryside.
The video released on 6 August showed a person light a match and place it on the grass before running away near Montesarchio, a town 31 miles (49km) from Naples in Italy. The man was arrested.
In Italy, the civil protection authority warned on Monday of more fires to come as temperatures in parts of the country reach 45C.
Continue reading...Week of blazes forces evacuations and brings devastating scale of destruction to large areas of southern Europe
The devastating scale of destruction from a week of wildfires in Greece and Italy was being assessed as the EU mounted one of its largest firefighting operations ever and smoke from forest fires in Siberia reached the north pole.
As UN experts on Monday said global warming was advancing faster than feared and that humanity was “unequivocally” to blame, firefighters and local residents battled massive blazes on the island of Evia, east of Athens, for a seventh straight day.
Continue reading...Firefighters tackle blazes on two fronts on Evia as heatwave-driven devastation across southern Europe continues
Thousands of people have fled wildfires that are destroying vast swathes of pine forest and razing homes on Greece’s second-largest island, Evia, as devastating summer blazes rage from southern Europe to Siberia.
“We have ahead of us another difficult evening, another difficult night,” Greece’s deputy civil protection minister, Nikos Hardalias, said on Sunday, adding that nearly a week after the blazes started, strong winds were driving two major fire fronts in the north and south of the island.
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