Incredible photos from space show LA wildfires that have forced 200,000 from their homes including celebrities as experts warn 80mph gusts put hundreds of square miles in ‘EXTREME’ danger
Hundreds of square miles of Southern California are at ‘extreme’ risk of wildfires today, experts have warned
Gusts from strong Santa Ana winds can make fires uncontrollable or carry embers for miles to dry grass
Firefighters managed to make some gains against the fires on Wednesday but those could be lost today
Five fires – including the Skirball fire that burned Bel Air houses Wednesday – are still being fought
The largest fire – the Thomas Fire near Ventura – has covered more than 14 square miles of land
No people have been killed but 29 horses were killed after the Creek Fire swept through a ranch near Sylmar
By JAMES WILKINSON
DAILYMAIL.COM
7 December 2017
Stunning new photographs show the California wildfires from space, revealing just how vast the level of devastation is – as experts say it’s likely to get worse as fires become uncontrollable in high winds.
The photos, posted on Twitter by International Space Station astronaut Randy Bresnik, show plumes of smoke covering the land and sea as the five wildfires continue to rage.
But now experts say that the high Santa Ana winds have pushed the risk level for much of Southern California into the never-before-seen ‘Extreme’ range.
The National Weather Service San Diego has marked hundreds of square miles – from Ojai in the north down to the Mexican border, and Ventura in the east to the 247 freeway in the west – in purple, warning of the risk of fast-growing, ‘uncontrollable’ fires.
That could mean the hard-won progress of firefighters on Wednesday will be erased on Thursday, as the fires – which have already put hundreds of thousands of people under evacuation orders and destroyed nearly 20 homes and buildings – grow at terrifying speeds.
‘We’ve never used purple before,’ said Ken Pimlott, director at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, referring to the color-coded ‘Extreme’ designation placed on miles of Southrn California.
‘We’re talking winds that can surface that can be 80 miles an hour. These will be winds that there will be no ability to fight fires.’
There have been fire blazes so far, with the largest – the Thomas Fire – occurring in the Ventura area; it was joined by the Skirball Fire, which burned LA’s rich Bel Air neighborhood; the Creek Fire, which destroyed homes in the Sylmar area, the Rye Fire, which menaced Santa Clarita; and the Little Mountain fire outside San Bernardino.
The Rest…HERE
