Biggest LA Fire Spreading More Slowly As Survivors Pick Up The Pieces

Crews battling wildfires ravaging southern California for a week have managed to slow the spread of the worst of the blazes, officials said Tuesday, as residents were taking stock of the catastrophic damage

Los Angeles, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Dec, 2017 ) :Crews battling wildfires ravaging southern California for a week have managed to slow the spread of the worst of the blazes, officials said Tuesday, as residents were taking stock of the catastrophic damage.

The biggest "Thomas" fire has charred nearly 95,000 hectares (234,000 acres) of land and is only 20 percent contained, according to the state agency Calfire. But in the past day or so, that figure has risen by only a thousand hectares.

Evacuation orders were issued for threatened areas in the Santa Barbara region about 160 kilometers (100 miles) northwest of Los Angeles. Nearly 6,400 firefighters have been toiling for a week against blazes fueled by bone dry conditions and powerful winds.

Winds will blow at up to 65 km per hour (40 miles per hour), forecasters said, as public health authorities urged people to wear face masks to protect against ash and smoke. Retired pilot Don Thompson, who has an avocado farm in Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara, described the loss of his recently deceased brother's house to the blaze as "the end of an era for our family." "He built this house himself," he said pointing to two smoldering stone chimneys that were all that remained.

Half of his family's avocado orchard was destroyed, while thick black smoke persisted Tuesday, limiting visibility to some 50 meters (55 yards).