Almost 8000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes as a large fire moves through Cherry Vally, California.
City officials say that they are taking precautions to prevent coronavirus from spreading amidst the evacuations. Instead of evacuation sites being used as shelter, people are being told to check in and are then being moved to hotel rooms.
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According to officials no one has been hurt, but there has been widespread damage, multiple road closures and a smoke advisory in the area.
As of Sunday afternoon, California Fire Captain Fernando Herrera confirmed that that the fire is 0% contained. Herrera said that they are utilizing planes to anticipate any new issues.
“It is steep terrain, rugged terrain,” he said. “Access is limited. We can’t really get to it on foot. We rely a lot on the aircraft to do the work during the day.”
Over 1000 firefighters and emergency planes spent the day attending to the flames. The fire had spread across 20,000 acres and and smoke even flew across state lines into Arizona.
Many residences are in danger of burning down in both San Bernardino county and Riverside county.
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Two small fires started on Friday night but they were not contained, and eventually combined into the Apple Fire. According to Desert Sun, the flames were “fed by low humidity, a slight breeze, thick vegetation and triple-digit temperatures.”
The initial cause is still not confirmed, but according to some media reports, and as reported by USA Today, witnesses called 911 after seeing a man walking on the street and igniting the vegetation.
Officials are currently using Very Large Air Tankers (VLAT), which can hold about 10,000 gallons of fire retardant, to try and get the fire contained.
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