California declares a state of emergency after wildfires spread

<p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr">ArabiaWeather.com- In the US state of California, a state of emergency was declared after forest fires spread in the north of the state, destroying a number of homes and threatening about six thousand residents.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> According to a spokesman for the firefighting forces, the fires destroyed vast areas of forests amounting to more than a hundred square miles, and led to the evacuation of hundreds of residents of the city of San Andreas from their homes due to the rapid spread of fires.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> The spokesman added that more than 1,500 members of the firefighting forces and 16 helicopters are participating in the operations to put out the fires that broke out three days ago.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> A spokeswoman for the California Forest and Fire Protection Department, Lynn Tolmakov, said that the fire destroyed 15 homes in two rural counties, covering an area of about 65 dunams. The spokeswoman expected the number of homes destroyed by the fire to rise when the damage assessment process begins.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> The authorities had asked residents to evacuate the area.</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> See also:</p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> <a href="http://jo.arabiaweather.com/content/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%87%D9%86%D8%AF-%D8%B... Lightning strikes kill 22 farmers in the south of the country</a></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> <a href="http://jo.arabiaweather.com/content/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AF... Scary footage of floods that caused the evacuation of 100,000 people in Japan</a></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"> <a href="http://jo.arabiaweather.com/content/%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%88-%D9%8... video: Giant hail falls like missiles on a vehicle in the middle of the sea</a></p><p style=";text-align:left;direction:ltr"></p>