The historic Hearst Castle, a major tourist attraction on California’s central coast, will be closed to the public through the week as a safety precaution due to a wildfire in the area that has destroyed more than 30 homes, state officials said on Monday.
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The wildfire, which was only 35 per cent contained, was one of at least six raging across the drought-stricken state. More than 87,000 acres have been scorched north of Big Sur.
The castle doors and windows are…
California’s state fire department is stretched thin just as the bone-dry state enters the peak of its wildfire season, with vacancy rates exceeding 15 percent for some firefighters and supervisors.
More than 1,200 firefighters are battling the 6-square-mile blaze that started August 13 and spread to the community’s downtown area and many residential neighborhoods.
By Saturday, crews had largely contained the blaze allowing the lifting of evacuation orders for many residents.
“By fighting these fires, we unfortunately enter what’s called the fire paradox, and that is the harder you try to suppress them, the worse they get when they do happen”, Finney said.
Cal Fire San Luis Obispo Unit has received reports of illegal requests for donations for firefighters and advised that it does not and is not soliciting donations.
A 2014 study by the state’s human resources department found state firefighters receive one-third less in pay and benefits, on average, than their counterparts at fire departments for 18 California cities and two counties surveyed.
State firefighters’ duties have changed as they try to protect an increasing number of rural homes built in the midst of tinder-dry brush and trees, said University of California, Riverside, professor Richard Minnich, who studies fire ecology.
In Wyoming, the Yellowstone National Park is in the midst of a massive wildfire that has grown to thirty-five square miles.
The flames expanded by almost 10 square miles Sunday. More than 2,400 people are affected by the evacuation orders issued for the fire, according to county officials.
In addition, Washington, Wyoming, Montana and OR each had their hands full with large active wildfires.
Pitassi says officials hope to let thousands of evacuated residents return home this weekend.
Bureau of Land Management spokesman Larry Moore says the wildfire is burning two miles east of the Owyhee Reservoir, and it’s threatening Succor Creek State Park.
Dozens of Cal Fire firefighters went on the attack Monday. Flames are expected to drive northeast this afternoon, particularly as morning onshore breezes shift direction and begin to blow out of the south and southwest (blowing toward the north, northeast) at 10 miles per hour with gusts of 20 miles per hour.
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The cause of the blaze is still under investigation.
