LOS ANGELES, 10 October (BelTA - Xinhua) - More than 20 wildfires erupted from Sunday night to Monday in California, killing 10, seriously injuring at least two, destroying at least 1,500 structures and forcing over 20,000 people to evacuate by Monday afternoon.
The CA Statewide Fire Summary signed by Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) at noon said "overnight significant winds fanned over a dozen fires across Northern California. 15 new wind whipped wildfires in eight countries have already burned over 73,000 acres (about 29,543 hectares) in the past 12 hours."
California Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in Napa, Sonoma and Yuba counties, due to the effects of the multiple fires, which have damaged 1,500 structures, threatened thousands of homes and caused the evacuation of more than 20,000 residents.
When Northern California suffered the wildfires, a raging wildfire erupted Monday noon near Los Angeles at the same time, scorching 500 acres (202 hectares) in three hours and threatening more than 1,000 houses and forced about 200 residents to evacuate.
The evacuation order was applied 50 miles (80 km) east of downtown Los Angeles, where many tourists in Disneyland posted their pictures on Facebook, showing the sky turned to orange.
KTLA news channel said the fire erupted during the fall's first significant blast of Santa Ana winds, the seasonal gusts linked to some of Southern California's worst wildfires.
