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A4 U.S. NEWS
TUESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2020
Enormous California wildfire threatens desert homes near LA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An pyrotechnic device used
enormous wildfire that by a couple to reveal their
churned through moun- baby's gender.
tains northeast of Los An- The death occurred Sept.
geles and into the Mojave 17 in San Bernardino Na-
Desert was still threatening tional Forest as crews
homes on Monday and battled the El Dorado Fire
was one of more than two about 75 miles (120 kilome-
dozen major fires burning ters) east of Los Angeles,
across California. the U.S. Forest Service said
Five of the largest wildfires in a statement. That blaze is
in state history are current- 59% contained.
ly burning and more than In Wyoming, officials
5,600 square miles (14,500 warned that gusty winds on
square kilometers) have Monday could cause more
been charred, an area growth of a wildfire burning
larger than the state of toward cabins and an im-
Connecticut, Gov. Gavin portant water supply reser-
Newsom said. voir that's a major source of
At 165 square miles (427 water for the state's capital
square kilometers), the Bob- city, Cheyenne. The fire in
cat Fire is one of the largest the Medicine Bow National
ever in Los Angeles County Forest is burning in heav-
after burning for more than A woman watches as the Bobcat Fire burns in Juniper Hill, Calif., Friday, Sept. 18, 2020. ily forested, rugged terrain
two weeks. It's just 15% con- Associated Press which would usually would
tained. be busy now with hunters
Evacuation orders and to firefighters," Smith said. sessments are ongoing, he geological attraction that at the start of elk hunting
warnings are in place for Numerous studies in re- said. sees some 130,000 visitors season.
thousands of residents in cent years have linked big- The Bobcat Fire started per year. A wildlife sanc- And in Colorado, more
foothill and desert areas, ger U.S. wildfires to global Sept. 6 and has doubled in tuary on the property was evacuations were or-
where semi-rural homes warming from the burning size over the last week as undamaged, and staff and dered on Sunday as winds
and a popular nature of coal, oil and gas, es- it ripped through forested animals had been evacu- caused the state's largest
sanctuary have burned. pecially because climate areas that hadn't burned in ated days earlier. wildfire to grow. Firefighters
Statewide, at least 23,000 change has made Cali- decades. The cause is un- Nearly 19,000 firefighters had to temporarily retreat
people remain evacuated, fornia much drier. A drier der investigation. in California are currently from the massive Cam-
Newsom said. California means plants are Firefighters battled back battling 27 major blazes, eron Peak Fire near Red
No injuries have been re- more flammable. against another flareup Newsom said. At least 7,900 Feather Lakes. Flames later
ported for the fire about 50 Officials said it could be near Mount Wilson, which wildfires have erupted in spread into flatter ground
miles (80 kilometers) north- days before teams deter- overlooks greater Los An- the state this year, many which gave crews a better
east of downtown Los An- mine the scope of the de- geles in the San Gabriel during a mid-August bar- chance to battle the blaze,
geles. struction in the area burned Mountains and has a his- rage of dry lightning ignited fire managers said.
Erratic winds that drove by the Bobcat Fire toric observatory founded parched vegetation. More than 9,000 firefighters
flames into the commu- Early estimates are that more than a century ago Twenty-six people have continue to battle 27 large
nity of Juniper Hills over the 6,400 buildings have been and numerous broadcast been killed. Officials were wildfires across Oregon
weekend had died down, destroyed across the state, antennas serving Southern investigating the death of a and Washington, where
said U.S. Forest Service but Newsom said "by no California. firefighter at another South- thousands of residences
spokesman Larry Smith. stretch of the imagination Flames destroyed the ern California wildfire that have been destroyed, the
"It's slightly cooler too, so do we think this tells the nature center at Devil's erupted earlier this month Pacific Northwest Region of
hopefully that will be a help entire story." Damage as- Punchbowl Natural Area, a from a smoke-generating the Forest Service said.q

$20,000 acrylic case installed around Jefferson marker

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A the Columbia Daily Tribune Christian Basi said.
$20,000 acrylic case now reported. Chancellor Mun Choi this
protects Thomas Jeffer- A university spokesman summer refused to re-
son's original headstone said the case was installed move the Jefferson statue,
on the University of Mis- because of vandalism to prompting a student, Ro-
souri campus, a response a Jefferson statue that is man Leaphart, to begin a
to vandalism concerns also on campus, and graf- petition drive seeking re-
amid an ongoing dispute fiti written on the sidewalk moval of the monument to
about whether the univer- during the summer making "a racist slave owner."
sity should honor the third reference to Sally Hemings, Choi said at the time that
president who also was a a slave who gave birth to the university would move
slave owner. children fathered by Jef- to put Jefferson's complex
The clear case was installed ferson. history into context. A task
Saturday over the granite "This is Jefferson's original force that includes stu-
obelisk that was originally tombstone that was en- dents, faculty and others
Thomas Jefferson's original granite grave marker is seen Sun- erected at Monticello in trusted to the university and is working on that project
day, Sept. 20, 2020, enclosed in an acrylic case on the Francis Virginia in 1833. It was re- we have a responsibility to toward a goal of making
Quadrangle at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. placed in 1883 and given insure that it is preserved recommendations by the
Associated Press to the University of Missouri, appropriately," spokesman spring, Basi said.q