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A28 u.s. news
Dialuna 5 OctOber 2020

California wildfires on the brink of burning 4 million acres

brush after weeks of scorch- march toward scenic com- 57% contained.
ing weather and years of munities. Two inmate firefighters were
drought, fires could explode "The good news is that with injured Friday afternoon and
in rural areas, grasslands and the lack of wind, we didn't were airlifted from a steep
dense forest even without the have continued control is- area in the northern zone of
push of winds. sues," said Ben Nicholls, a the fire to a local hospital, in-
Above-normal temperatures Cal Fire division chief. cident commander Sean Ka-
and low humidity persisted "However," he added, "due to vanaugh said.
Saturday, heightening the fire that lack of wind, the smoke One was released while the
danger. has stayed in place" and hin- other remained hospitalized
"It just leaves us kind of ner- dered aircraft from attacking Saturday, Kavanaugh said.
vous that we're not out of the the blaze. Altogether, wildfires have
woods yet when it comes to Evacuation orders for many killed 31 people and de-
what might happen in Cali- of the 5,000 residents of Cal- stroyed 8,200 structures in
fornia," said Jonathan Cox, a istoga were reduced Friday California this year. Many of
(AP) — Red flag warnings of the wine country and the far deputy chief with the Cali- to warnings, although trees the largest fires were started
extreme fire danger subsided, north continued to burn. fornia Department of For- and some homes on the town by lightning strikes in mid-
but warm and dry weather Powerful winds that had estry and Fire Protection, borders were burning. August and most of the de-
continued to challenge fire- been expected to drive flames known as Cal Fire. The fire, which had de- stroyed acreage has come
fighters battling more than since Wednesday hadn't ma- A cooling trend is expected stroyed about 600 homes and since then.
two dozen blazes across terialized, and warnings of to slowly begin on Sunday. other buildings, still threat- About 17,000 firefighters are
California on Saturday as the extreme fire danger for hot, Long-range forecast models ened around 29,000 homes. still battling nearly two dozen
state approaches an astonish- dry and gusty weather ex- hinted at the possibility of The fire had burned 97.4 major blazes.
ing milestone: 4 million acres pired Saturday morning as a rain early next week. square miles (252 square ki- Numerous studies have
burned by wildfires this year. layer of fog rolled in. Clearer The easing winds proved a lometers) and was only 10% linked bigger wildfires in the
The state is about 20,000 skies in some areas allowed mixed blessing at the Glass contained. U.S. to climate change from
acres from reaching the un- large air tankers to drop re- Fire in Sonoma and Napa In Shasta County in the the burning of coal, oil and
precedented figure, fire of- tardant after being sidelined counties. Although the fire north end of the state, the gas. Scientists say climate
ficials said. Meanwhile, two by smoky conditions several raged on, crews got a break as Zogg Fire that began Sunday change has made California
major fires that have killed days earlier. they struggled to keep flames has killed four people and de- much drier, meaning trees
four people and inciner- But with California a tinder- from jumping containment stroyed nearly 180 structures. and other plants are more
ated hundreds of homes in box of dead trees and dried lines and renewing their Containment slightly grew to flammable.

NYC seeks to reinstate virus restrictions in some spots

(AP) — New York City's mayor said Over the past two weeks, the num- new cases per day citywide as recently dent Michael Mulgrew praised the
Sunday that he has asked the state ber of new cases of the virus has been as Sept. 7. decision. "This is the right decision,
for permission to close schools and rising in pockets of the city, predomi- Overall, the city's infection rate re- one that helps protect our schools,
reinstate restrictions on nonessential nantly in neighborhoods in Brook- mains relatively low, with around 420 our neighborhoods, and ultimately
businesses in several neighborhoods lyn and Queens that are home to the new cases a day over the past few days, our city," Mulgrew said Sunday.
because of a resurgence of the coro- city's large Orthodox Jewish popula- but those have been concentrated in a The staff at Public School 164 in the
navirus. tion. handful of neighborhoods. The nine Borough Park section of Brooklyn,
The action, if approved, would mark Nearly 1,100 people have tested posi- ZIP codes singled out by the mayor one of the affected neighborhoods,
a disheartening retreat for a city that tive in Brooklyn in just the last four have been responsible for more than sent a letter to de Blasio on Thursday
enjoyed a summer with less spread of days, according to state figures. 20% of all new infections in the city demanding that the school be closed.
the virus than most other parts of the De Blasio made the announcement over the past four weeks, though they Teacher Frances Hidalgo said it was
country, and had only recently cele- shortly after Gov. Andrew Cuomo represent only 7% of the population. unrealistic to think the school would
brated the return of students citywide complained that local governments De Blasio had said in the past that be immune from infection when stu-
to in-person learning in classrooms. with coronavirus hot spots had "not public schools were largely unaffect- dents and staff interact with people in
Shutdowns would happen starting done an effective job" of enforcing ed by the rise in virus infections in the neighborhood daily.
Wednesday in nine ZIP codes in the social distancing rules. Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, but Hidalgo, a fourth grade teacher,
city, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "If a local jurisdiction cannot or will he said Sunday that public schools in pointed to the high positivity rate
About 100 public schools and 200 not perform effective enforcement the hot spot neighborhoods would be in Borough Park. "We don't live in a
private schools would have to close. of violating entities, notify the state closed "out of an abundance of cau- bubble. We're part of the neighbor-
Indoor dining, which just resumed and we will close all business activ- tion." hood," she said in a phone interview
a few days ago, would be suspended. ity in the hot spots where the local United Federation of Teachers Presi- Saturday.
Outdoor restaurant dining would governments cannot do compliance,"
shut down in the affected neighbor- Cuomo said.
hoods as well, and gyms would close. Cuomo did not immediately com-
Houses of worship would be allowed ment on de Blasio's proposed shut-
to remain open with existing restric- down in the areas where the virus is
tions in place, de Blasio said. spiking.As many as 500,000 people
The mayor, a Democrat, said he was live in the neighborhoods affected
taking the action in an attempt to by the proposed shutdown, de Blasio
stop the virus from spreading deeper said. He said the lockdown could be
into the city and becoming a "sec- lifted in 14 days or 28 days if the per-
ond wave," like the one that killed centage of people testing positive for
more than 24,000 New Yorkers in the COVID-19 declines.
spring. The coronavirus was estimated to
"We've learned over and over from have hit between 1 and 2 million
this disease that it is important to act people in New York City, mostly in
aggressively, and when the data tells the spring before testing was widely
us it's time for even the toughest and available. Thousands of people fell ill
most rigorous actions we follow the each day. By the summer's end, the
data, we follow the science," de Blasio city appeared to have the virus partly
said. in check, averaging fewer than 240