Another Day, Another Deadly Firestorms Sweeps Through A City

Wildfire burns a historic old schoolhouse in Shasta, California
on Thursday. Photo by Noah Berger/AP

These seem to be happening more and more lately:

Another terrible firestorm is ripping through a city, this time, Redding, California. The north-central California community of 92,000 is facing massive evacuations, at least dozens of homes burned, at least one death, and many injured. 

It's so bad that television station KRCR in Redding was knocked off the air, its staff evacuated because the area was unsafe. Apparently, they're back, because there was a live feed from the television station going as of  6:30 EDT.

There's a clip of that moment when KRCR was evacuated at the bottom of this post.

Details on this fire are still sketch as I write this early Friday morning as it is breaking news. Apparently, the fire ripped through the nearby towns of Shasta and Whiskeytown before jumping the Sacramento River and charging through Redding overnight.

"The fire is moving pretty rapidly and taking everything down in its path," said Scott McLean, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Weather conditions are terrible in northern California are not expected to get better anytime soon. At one point Thursday in Redding, the temperature was 113 degrees, with an 11 percent relative humidity, with three mile visibility in smoke.

Similarly hot, dry weather is forecast for the next several days in the region.

Scientists have long warned us that wildfires would get worse as climate change takes hold, and that seems to be what's happening. Combine that with more and more people building houses in or near the wilderness and you get what happened in California last night.

Screen grab showing KRCR anchors in Redding announcing they are
going off the air because the television station was being
evacuated ahead of an oncoming wildfire

Redding joins a growing list of communities worldwide that have been devastated by wildfires in recent years. Just this week, that wildfire that roared through seaside resorts in Greece killed at least 80 people.

In 2017, wildfires destroyed 10,000 California structures, more than in the nine previous years combined, the Sacramento Bee reported. Those fires killed 43 people - more fatalities than in the previous ten years combined.

One of those fires ripped through Napa and Sonoma, destroying 5,600 structures.

Back in May, 2016, a huge wildfire blasted through Fort McMurray, Canada, destroying 2,400 structures and forcing the mass evacuation of the city's 88,000 residents.

Fire season across the Northern Hemisphere is far from over. Which community will be hit next?

Here's the clip from KRCR:



And here's an AP video of homes burning near or in Redding: