The Thomas Fire, one of five destructive blazes currently burning in California, now ranks as the tenth largest wildfire on record in the state.
As of Sunday, the massive fire has burned more than 173,000 acres and destroyed more than 500 structures in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties since sparking last Monday. At just 15 percent containment, it continues to threaten more than 15,000 structures.
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The blaze grew nearly 20,000 acres overnight, forcing new evacuations for parts of Montecito and Carpinteria. It also impacted power lines, leaving at least 85,000 Santa Barbara residents without power on Sunday.“It’s December, and it’s amazing to be able to say we aren’t out of fire season,” Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott said at a new conference on Saturday. “And this is the challenge that we face in California and certainly here in Southern California, that it is a year-round challenge that we are all in.”
That’s the “new reality” for California, Gov. Jerry Brown also said Saturday, calling the state a “very wonderful place, but a place that’s getting hotter” as global temperatures rise.
“And we know from the changing in the climate that it’s going to exacerbate everything else,” Brown said, echoing climate scientists’ warnings that California’s highly variable climate will only become more vulnerable to wildfires and other natural disasters.
The number of large fires burning across Southern California speaks to that concern. As of Sunday, Cal Fire said, the five major ongoing blazes had burned 200,000 acres, forced 98,000 evacuations, damaged or destroyed 834 structures and threatened around 25,000 in total. [/restrict]