California (Los Angeles & San Diego) fires, October 2007

LOS ANGELES, 2007 Oct 24 (From AFP) - More than half a million people across California were ordered to evacuate Tuesday as wildfires raged for a third day, destroying 1,200 homes and threatening to overwhelm firefighters. Wind-driven infernos have so far scorched at least 135,000 hectares of tinder-dry forest and brush, making the blaze one of the worst wildfire crises in Californian history. One person has died and more than 20 people have been injured in fires that erupted on Sunday and spread quickly across the region, fanned by powerful seasonal winds gusting in from the desert. Local media reported that 1,200 homes had been destroyed in the fires, with a further 400 structures also razed. President George W. Bush declared an emergency and ordered federal aid to be directed to the fire-stricken region, as a spokeswoman confirmed he would visit California on Thursday. At least 14 separate fires were raging, spanning a region from north of Los Angeles to south of the Mexican border. Some fires were so vast that they could be seen from space and smoke was so thick in the area that weather radars mistook it for rain clouds. Around 6,000 firefighters backed by a squadron of 90 firefighting aircraft, including a DC-10, 25 air tankers and 40 helicopters were battling the flames. Chip Prather, the fire chief of Orange County, said the number of fires had stretched resources to breaking point. "The bottom line is there is not enough air assets, not enough helicopters, not enough air tankers," he said. "There are not enough resources to go round." A forestry official said the seasonal Santa Ana winds were making the fire impossible to contain at blazes raging near Lake Arrowhead. In San Diego County, ground zero of the firestorm, evacuees were sent to Qualcomm Stadium, home of the San Diego Chargers American football team. Some 20,000 evacuees were huddled inside the stadium grounds, reporters said. San Diego County officials said approximately 513,000 people in the district had received mandatory evacuation orders and an additional 12,000 people had been advised to leave their homes. A statement said a total of 349,915 households had received calls asking them to evacuate. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said the speedy evacuations of vast numbers of residents had helped keep casualties to a minimum. "If there's a statistic that so far stands out, it's the fact that we have had minimal loss of life," Sanders said, adding that 300,000 people had been confirmed evacuated. San Diego district attorneys meanwhile warned that anyone caught looting during the fires would be aggressively prosecuted, following the arrest of two people in Ramona. The causes of the different fires raging throughout the state varied, with a fallen power line believed to be the cause of a blaze in Malibu and arson blamed for a fire in Orange County that torched 6,000 hectares. The firestorm is the worst to hit California since 2003, when 22 people were killed and more than 3,000 homes destroyed.

Description: This Medium Level 1 Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) was acquired on 25 October 2007 (orbit 29554) over Los Angeles and San Diego, where fires are still visible near the cities.

Technical Information: MERIS_FR
Instrument: Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) 
Instrument features: Full Resolution image (300 - meter resolution)
Orbit Direction: Descending

Click on thumbnail to view large image

Bands 7 (Red), 5 (Green) and 2 (Blue), corresponding to visible light, were used to create this image.

Description: This Medium Level 1 Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) was acquired on 24 October 2007 (orbit 29540) over Los Angeles and San Diego, where fires still devastate the areas between these cities.

Technical Information: MERIS_FR
Instrument: Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) 
Instrument features: Full Resolution image (300 - meter resolution)
Orbit Direction: Descending

Click on thumbnail to view large image

Bands 7 (Red), 5 (Green) and 2 (Blue), corresponding to visible light, were used to create this image.

Description: This Medium Level 1 Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) was acquired on 22 October 2007 (orbit 29511) over Los Angeles and San Diego, where fires devastate the areas between these cities.

Technical Information: MERIS_FR
Instrument: Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) 
Instrument features: Full Resolution image (300 - meter resolution)
Orbit Direction: Descending

Click on thumbnail to view large image

Bands 7 (Red), 5 (Green) and 2 (Blue), corresponding to visible light, were used to create this image.

Description: This Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) image below was acquired on 21 October 2007 (orbit 29497) over Los Angeles and San Diego, where fires have devastated the areas between these cities. The image shows strong winds from the east, fires in suburbs of Los Angeles and close to San Diego (lower right image).

Technical Information: MERIS_RR
Instrument: Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) 
Instrument features: Medium Resolution image (1200 - meter resolution)
Orbit Direction: Descending

Click on thumbnail to view large image

Bands 7 (Red), 5 (Green) and 2 (Blue), corresponding to visible light, were used to create this image.