California wildfires force massive evacuation

Fast-growing wildfires throughout California has burned down dozens of buildings, forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate their homes.

ed by dry winds and high heat, about 10 wildfires occurred throughout the state, Xinhua news agency quoted the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) as saying on Thursday.

So far no immediate injuries or casualties were reported.

In Southern California, a bush fire dubbed 'Tick Fire' broke out on Thursday afternoon and exploded to 15.9 sq.km by 8 p.m.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department said the blaze threatened 10,000 structures and forced 40,000 people to be evacuated.

"Firefighters are faced with a strong Santa Ana wind this evening and into Friday. Approximately 500 firefighters are currently on-scene with additional resources responding from all over the state," Los Angeles County Fire Department said in a statement.

Three more wild fires also broke out in Los Angeles County on Thursday, local authorities said, adding that firefighters were in a fierce battle to save homes.

In Northern California wine country, authorities had ordered 2,000 people to evacuate as a wildfire, dubbed 'Kincade Fire', exploded overnight, scorching over 64.8 sq.km by Thursday night.

Officials also ordered an evacuation of Geyserville, home to about 900 people and a popular stop for wine country tourists, along with nearby residences.

The blaze threatened some of the area's famed wineries and had burned 49 buildings, the ABC 7 news channel reported.

More than 500 firefighters were battling the blaze in Sonoma County, but their overnight efforts could only focus on evacuations and the high winds made the fire difficult to contain.

"Our aircraft can't drop in those conditions. When you have that kind of wind speed, the resistance to control is beyond our capabilities. Because of the terrain and fuel conditions and the heat and humidity, the containment is still very challenging," Mark Parks with Cal Fire told local media.

The Kincade fire started on Wednesday night near the Geysers Geothermal Plant, the world's largest geothermal field where nearly two dozen power plants draw steam from more than 350 mountain wells to create electricity.

While the cause of the Kincade fire has not been determined, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reported a problem with a transmission tower near the spot where the fire ignite.

PG&E had announced on Wednesday that it would cut off electricity to almost 180,000 California customers from that day's noon through Thursday as a precaution to possible breakout of wildfires.

It also warned on Thursday that more widespread blackouts this weekend were expected across much of the San Francisco Bay Area. It would be the third major outage this month.

Meanwhile, Southern California Edison, the main utility in southern California, had also cut power to more than 27,000 customers since Wednesday. It was considering additional power cuts to more than 386,000 customers.IANS