A megafire is advancing in California, and huge plumes of smoke are worrying

United States – a sky worthy of a horror movie. A violent fire, which “Megafire”, destruction from Friday 22nd July California is wild and ever-expanding This Monday, July 25, thousands of people were evacuated in an environment Strong peaks of heat Affects millions of Americans across the United States.

The fire, dubbed the “Oak Fire,” is spreading into nearby Mariposa County Yosemite National Park and its famous giant sequoias. According to a bulletin issued Sunday by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), it has “expanded significantly to the north and is moving into the Sierra National Forest.”

Favored by “extreme drought”, wind and rising temperatures, the fire, which was fought by about 2,000 firefighters supported by 17 helicopters, has burned at least 6,313 hectares of forest, destroyed 10 properties, damaged five more and threatened thousands. You can see it in the video below.

More than 6,000 people, mostly living in small high-rise communities, had to evacuate Saturday, a California fire department spokeswoman said. Los Angeles Times.

The fire is by no means contained and the heat, combined with low humidity, will “hinder” efforts to fight it, CAL FIRE said. On Saturday, a “state of emergency was declared in Mariposa County due to the effects of the Oak Fire,” state Governor Gavin Newsom announced. In a press release.

A disturbing cloudy phenomenon

As the flames doubled in intensity, California’s sky gradually changed due to an overcast event that completely blocked the sky.

Smoke from the fire has created a thick cloud cover in Mariposa County, but winds are dispersing that smoke, now affecting the northern Sierra Nevada, Lassen Volcanic National Park and the northern part of the Sacramento Valley, as seen in images taken from space. .

In three days, an area equivalent to 63 km² was destroyed by flames. By comparison, the city of San Francisco spanned the equivalent of 121 km², a testament to the particularly aggressive nature of this fire.

“It was scary when we got out because we were getting ash on us and we saw this cloud of smoke. It seemed like it was coming towards us very quickly past our house,” Linda Reynolds-Brown, a woman who had to leave her home, told local TV station KR 3. Place said.

Yosemite Park, one of the most famous parks in the world, experienced a fire in mid-July, the flames of which threatened its giant sequoias.

The American West has already experienced wildfires of exceptional size and intensity in recent years, along with a significantly longer fire season, a phenomenon scientists attribute to climate change.

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