Thomas fire becomes California’s largest wildfire in history

December 23, 2017 68 Views No Comment

The blaze known as the Thomas fire in Southern California is now the largest in the state’s recorded history, fire officials said.

The Thomas fire has scorched 273,400 acres, or about 427 square miles of coastal foothills and national forest.

That makes the Thomas fire 154 acres larger than the 2003 Cedar fire in San Diego that killed 15 people, officials said.

Thousands of firefighters and fleets of aircraft have been battling the Thomas blaze since Dec. 4. A firefighter and a woman fleeing the blaze died.

Days of unrelenting hot, gusty winds drive it through Ventura neighborhoods, incinerating entire blocks, and threatened the wealthy enclave of Montecito.

By Friday, however, humidity was higher, temperatures were cooler and the fire threat to homes in many areas eased. The fire continued to move slowly through forest but the blaze was 65 percent contained.

Fire officials said Saturday that any new growth in the Thomas fire will probably be attributed to controlled burns by firefighters, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“The main fire itself will not have any growth,” said Capt. Brandon Vaccaro of the California City Fire Department told the newspaper.

California’s list of worst fires dates only to the 1930s, but an 1889 fire in parts of Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties is considered by many to be the state’s worst fire, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Thomas fire earned its place in history Friday

The Thomas fire earned its place in history Friday when it reached 273,400 acres in its 19-day run from Santa Paula north toward Santa Barbara and east to Fillmore.

Ventura County’s fire outpaced the Cedar fire in San Diego County, which stretched 273,246 acres in 2003, and Thomas isn’t done yet. The blaze is at 65% containment as of Friday night, according to Cal Fire.

Still, the focus of Friday’s efforts on the Thomas fire revolved around getting control lines around the blaze to increase containment numbers and continuing a controlled burn in Los Padres National Forest.

The controlled burn was occurring in the Rose Valley area of the forest, said Capt. Brandon Vaccaro, an information officer assigned to the incident.

“Rose Valley is kind of the end of the burn,” Vaccaro said. The threat of the blaze was winding down as it continued to spread away from communities. On Thursday, all mandatory evacuation orders associated with the incident were lifted. The American Red Cross evacuation shelter at the Ventura County Fairgrounds was to close at 3 p.m. PT Friday.

The shelter was set up soon after the fire broke out north of Santa Paula on Dec. 4. On its first night, flames raced west toward Ventura, where much of the damage was reported.

The blaze has destroyed more than 1,000 buildings, including 775 single-family homes.

Two people have died as a result of the Thomas fire.

Virginia Pesola, 70, died as she was trying to evacuate her Santa Paula home.

Cal Fire engineer Cory Iverson, 32, of San Diego, died Dec. 14 fighting the fire on the eastern side near Fillmore. He leaves behind his wife Ashley and 2-year-old daughter Evie. The couple is expecting their second child.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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