A major fire ravaging an area on the outskirts of Los Angeles has doubled in size in less than 24 hours, firefighters announced Thursday, facing a sweltering heat wave in the western United States.
Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate the area threatened by the “Fairview fire”, which has now consumed more than 7,700 hectares of land.
“The fire is spreading east, south and into portions north of the fire’s focus,” California wildfire services said.
Two people have already been killed in the fire that broke out on Monday, in the midst of an extreme heat wave that has hit California for a week, as well as parts of Nevada and Arizona. With temperatures flirting with 45°C in some places, which jeopardize the Californian electricity grid.
The grid regulator, California ISO, narrowly avoided rotating blackouts (controlled and spread over different areas) on Tuesday.
It renewed its alert on Thursday to urge consumers to reduce their electricity consumption between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. – two hours more than previous calls of this type, due to an “insufficient supply” expected on this slot.
“The state and much of the West are enduring a record-breaking and historically long heat wave, straining the grid due to high electricity consumption,” the regulator said.
According to the US weather services, the heat wave should begin to dissipate in the coming days, but California is not out of the woods yet.