Firefighters were left fighting multiple fires in California Jan 8 has left thousands of acres on fire and prompting the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents.
A mix of extremely gusty winds, drought conditions and low humidity created conditions conducive for fires to quickly spread.
Here is a list in no particular order courtesy articles published in Watchmojo and Voice of America.
Australia 2009
Many towns and more than 2,000 homes were destroyed in what was dubbed the “Black Saturday” in Australia’s Victoria state, where 173 people were killed, The fire broke out on February 7, 2009.
Indonesia, 2015
Indonesia experienced a deadly fire outbreak in 2015, with western Sumatra and southern Kalimantan in Borneo the areas beign declared the hardest hit.
Torrid conditions and the El Niño effect made the situation spiral, racing through the country’s tropical forests, destroying habitats, killing at least 19 people and causing many more to suffer dangerous respiratory tract infections. The fires started in the summer of 2015 and lasted for months on end.
88,000 residents fled as the Fort McMurray Wildfire engulfed northern Alberta in May 2016, and over 2,500 homes were destroyed in what was dubbed the costliest natural disaster in Canada’s history,
Around $2.8 billion worth of insurance claims were also made as a result of the catastrophe, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
Greece in 2007 and 2018
In Greece’s worst-ever fire disaster, 103 people died when wildfires swept through homes and vehicles in the coastal town of Mati near Athens in July 2018, leaving only charred remains.
Most of the victims were trapped by the flames as they sat in traffic jams while trying to flee. Others drowned while trying to escape by sea.
In 2007, a 12-day inferno starting in late August killed at least 67 people and destroyed 800 homes across the southern Peloponnese peninsula.
The flames engulfed most of the region’s olive groves. The Aegean island of Evia was also badly affected.
In all 77 people died that summer due to the fires.
Amazon Rainforest Fires, Brazil and others, 2019
More than 30,000 separate fires raged these areas during August alone – according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Algeria in 2021 and 2022
More than 90 people, including 33 soldiers, were killed in dozens of wildfires in Algeria in August 2021.
The government blamed arsonists and a heatwave, however experts differed, criticizing authorities for failing to prepare for the annual wildfire season.
In August 2022, 37 people were killed over several days in northeastern El Tarf province, near the border with Tunisia over similar fires.
On November 8, 2018, at dawn, California’s deadliest modern fire broke out in the town of Paradise, some 240 kilometers (149 miles) to the north of San Francisco, killing 85 people over more than two weeks.
Known as the Camp Fire, it burned more than 62,000 hectares (153,000 acres) of land and reduced more than 18,800 buildings to ashes.
Investigations revealed that high tension electricity wires sparked the fire.
The Camp Fire is likely the deadliest fire in the continental United States for a century; the Cloquet Fire in 1918 in the northern state of Minnesota killed around 1,000 people.
Portugal in 2017
The deadliest wildfires in Portuguese history broke out in the central Leiria region during a heatwave in June 2017 and burned through hills covered with pine and eucalyptus trees for five days.
Many of the 63 people who died became trapped in their cars while trying to escape.
In October, a new series of deadly fires broke out in northern Portugal, killing another 45 people as well as four in neighboring Spain. Those fires were chiefly blamed on arsonists.
Western America Wildfires, Western America, 2021
Following record-breaking temperatures in the Pacific Northwest in the last days of June 2021, the number of wildfires in the US was at its highest level in a decade. The fires ravaged a region from Alaska to Wyoming, with more than 60 recorded fires across 10 states on 13 July. As well as high temperatures, the fires were worsened by drought. Firefighters attempted to put them out by dropping water to the ground by plane, but the air was so dry it evaporated before it got there.
Wildfires, Turkey, 2021
Turkey is known for its high temperatures, especially in peak summer, but this deadly heatwave, fed by hot air from North Africa, ravaged the country in 2021. More than 100 blazes caused by extreme heat intensity, which smashed a 20-year record, destroyed many parts of Turkey’s southern coastal resort towns in late July, killing eight people and thousands of animals. Nearly 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of land burned with residents saying it was “raining ashes”.
Oak Fire, California, USA, 2022
The blaze in Mariposa County, near Yosemite National Park, was fanned by gusty winds and the extreme drought conditions with temperatures reaching 100°F meant dense and dry vegetation lit up like matchsticks. However, just as evacuation orders were lifted, California was struck by another, even more ferocious fire…
by MAUREEN WARUINGE
