SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An unwelcome change in the weather, with higher winds, temperatures and lightning that threatens to spark new wildfires was coming Sunday to parched Northern California, where firefighters have for nearly a week battled three huge “complexes” of fires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced tens of thousands to flee.
Firefighters made slow but hopeful progress in battling the blazes on Saturday, aided by good weather but hampered by smoky skies that grounded water-dropping aircraft for some of the day. Reinforcements arrived to bolster overwhelmed crews, and evacuation orders were lifted in some areas.
But the changing weather brought fears of new fires overnight and warnings from state and local officials for residents in threatened areas to prepare to flee at any moment.
“There’s not a feeling of pure optimism, but a feeling of resolve, a feeling of we have resources backing us up,” Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore said.
Since Aug. 15, state fire officials said more than 12,000 lightning strikes across the state have ignited more than 500 wildfires. Of those, about two dozen major fires were attracting most of the state’s resources. Most of the damage was caused by three clusters of fire “complexes” that were ravaging forest and rural areas in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. They have burned 1,120 square miles (2,900 square kilometers).
Among the casualties were ancient redwood trees at California’s oldest state park, Big Basin Redwoods, plus the park’s headquarters and campgrounds. Smoke from the fires made the region’s air quality dangerous, forcing people to stay inside.
Overall, the fires have killed five people, torched nearly 700 homes and other structures and forced tens of thousands from their houses.
“Tuesday night when I went to bed I had a beautiful home on a beautiful ranch,” said 81-year-old Hank Hanson of Vacaville. “By Wednesday night, I have nothing but a bunch of ashes.”
The changing weather brought good news for some communities, including Boulder Creek, an old logging community of about 5,000 people in the Santa Cruz mountains. Fire officials said they expected the blaze to reach the community, but they took advantage of recent good weather to try to “herd” flames around the town.
The storms predicted for Sunday were expected to aid those efforts by changing the direction of the wind.
“As bad as that weather prediction is overall for certain parts of this fire, it actually is going to help us move it away from those certain communities,” said Chief Mark Brunton, a battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the state’s firefighting agency.
Responding to the emergency, President Donald Trump issued on Saturday a major disaster declaration to provide federal assistance. Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that the declaration will also help people in counties affected by the fires with crisis counseling, housing and other social services.
Fire officials, meanwhile, struggled to get enough resources to fight the two largest cluster of fires around the San Francisco Bay area that had grown to become the second-largest and third-largest fires in state history by size.
The fire burning in California’s wine country, north of the San Francisco Bay, had only 1,400 firefighters assigned to battle the blaze. By comparison, the state had 5,000 firefighters assigned to the Mendocino Complex in 2018, which still holds the record as the largest fire in state history — for now.
“All of our resources remain stretched to capacity that we have not seen in recent history,” said Shana Jones, the chief for CalFire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit.
Underscoring the danger the fires pose for firefighters, the Sonoma County sheriff’s office released dramatic video of the helicopter rescue Friday night of two firefighters trapped on a ridge line at Point Reyes National Seashore. They were hoisted to safety as flames advanced.
“Had it not been for that helicopter, those firefighters would certainly have perished,” Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said.
Associated Press
SYDNEY—An Italian restaurant in Australia has made a 103-meter (338 foot) Margherita pizza to raise funds for firefighters battling bushfires.
The pizza was rolled out in rectangular, meter-long pieces of dough, pieced together and covered with tomato sauce and mozzarella, before being baked using a conveyor oven.
It was then liberally seasoned with basil leaves, oregano and olive oil.
The effort took about 4 hours, according to Pellegrini's restaurant, and yielded 4,000 slices.
The proceeds went to the New South Wales Rural Fire service.
A video of the pizza being made has gone viral on social media with lots of users marveling at its size.
The restaurant is now holding a contest to guess how many kilograms of flour went into making the pizza.
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MELBOURNE/SYDNEY - Australian officials used a respite on Monday from fierce wildfires that have killed 24 people across the country's southeast to race to reopen blocked roads and evacuate people who have been trapped for days.
A second day of light rain and cool winds brought some relief from heatwave-fueled blazes that ripped through two states over the weekend, but officials warned the hazardous weather conditions were expected to return later in the week.
"There is no room for complacency," New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Monday morning. Two people remained missing as around 130 fires continued to burn in the state, though not at a high-alert level.
Authorities redoubled their efforts on Monday to provide supplies and repatriate thousands of people who have been trapped by fire lines in coastal towns for several days.
"This morning it is all about recovery, making sure people who have been displaced have somewhere safe (to go) and it is making sure we have resources to build up the presence on the ground to clean up the roads, clean up where the rubble exists," Berejiklian said.
Dean Linton, a resident of Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains, used the break from an immediate threat to his town to visit his wife and four children who had evacuated to Sydney. He also used the 870 kilometer round trip to pick up a fire-fighting pump and generator to help him protect the family home.
"There's a lot of fuel in that national park; it would only take one lightning strike," Linton told Reuters.
The bushfire season started earlier than normal this year following a three-year drought that has left much of the country's bushland tinder-dry and vulnerable to fires. More than 5 million hectares (12 million acres) of land have been destroyed.
Following are highlights of what is happening across Australia:
* There were no emergency warnings in fire-ravaged states on Monday following the weather change. Victoria state had 25 "watch and act" alerts and South Australia had one "watch and act" alert. In NSW, all fires were back at the "advice" level, the lowest alert level, NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.
* Fire officials said the light rain that has brought some relief also posed challenges for back-burning efforts to reduce fuel for future fires and bring existing fires under control.
* In Batemans Bay on the New South Wales south coast, power was expected to remain out for several more days. Further south in Bermagui, food and fuel were running out, Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
* Military helicopters were due to evacuate more people, including the elderly and young children, from Mallacoota on Monday. More than a thousand people were evacuated from the Victoria state town by two naval ships on Friday.
* Insurers have received 5,850 bushfire-related claims in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland since the Insurance Council declared a bushfire catastrophe on Nov 8.
* Bushfire losses are estimated at A$375 million ($260 million) since November, with a further A$56 million in insured property losses in September and October, the Insurance Council said. Figures do not include properties lost over the past 24 to 36 hours in areas such as the NSW Southern Highlands and south coast.
* Accommodation provider Aspen Group said on Monday it expects a A$500,000 hit to both revenue and net operating income from the bushfires.
* Canberra was running short of masks with the nation's capital blanketed in smoke, ACT emergency services said. The National Gallery of Australia said it was closed to protect visitors and art works. The government department responsible for coordinating Australia’s response to disasters and emergency management also closed its doors due to poor air quality.
* Army personnel plan to begin digging graves to bury more than one hundred thousand sheep and cattle killed in the bushfires.
* Actor Russell Crowe skipped Hollywood’s Golden Globes ceremony, where he won an award for playing former Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes in the TV series “The Loudest Voice in the Room.” Presenter Jennifer Aniston said Crowe stayed in Australia to protect his family from the bushfires and read remarks he had prepared where he said the fires were "climate change based."
* Prime Minister Scott Morrison continued to face criticism of his handling of the crisis. "Poor political judgment is one thing. Competency is another thing altogether. This is the political danger zone Scott Morrison wants to avoid in his handling of the bushfire crisis," Rupert Murdoch's The Australian, a supporter of the government, said in an article by the newspaper's national affairs editor on Monday.
* State officials have thanked people for donations of clothes and food, but said that cash was more useful.
* 41 US firefighters are in Victoria with a further 70 from Canada and the United States expected to join on Jan. 8, the Victoria Country Fire Authority said on Twitter.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
RENNES, France - Firefighters brought a fire at the largest oil refinery in France under control Saturday, local officials said, hours after it started in the small hours of the morning.
The blaze broke out at one of Total's oil refineries near the port city of Le Havre, northwestern France, at 4:00 am (0300 GMT) said officials at the prefecture of the Seine-Maritime region.
By dawn, smoke was pouring out across the region reaching as far as 10 kilometers (six miles) away. About 50 firefighters worked to bring the blaze under control.
A smell of hot tar hung over the zone, an AFP photographer noted, and although tests for air pollution near the plant were negative, for a few hours the prefecture advised residents to stay indoors.
In a statement they said a pump fault appeared to have caused the fire.
Total confirmed in its statement that the fire appeared to have been caused at a feed pump.
Nobody had been injured and all those at the site, which employs around 1,500 people, had been accounted for, it added.
But the incident comes only a day after safety officials approved the partial reopening of a factory in the northwest city of Rouen -- which suffered a fire last September -- over the objections of some local officials.
The blaze at the plant in Rouen on September 26 sent billowing clouds of soot as far as 22 kilometers away, prompting evacuations and school closures over potential health risks.
Both the factory at Rouen and the refinery near Le Havre are classified high-risk on the Seveso scale measuring industrial risk.
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NEW DELHI, India - At least 35 people have died in a factory fire in India's capital New Delhi, with the toll still expected to rise, police told AFP Sunday.
The blaze broke out in the early hours in the city's old quarter, whose narrow and congested lanes are lined with many small manufacturing and storage units.
"We have since rescued at least 50 people," Sunil Choudhary, New Delhi's deputy chief fire officer, told AFP.
They were "laborers and factory workers sleeping inside this four- or five-storied building," he said, adding that the fire had been extinguished but rescue operations were ongoing.
A senior Delhi police official said eight or nine people were carried out later, bringing the overall number rescued to at least 58.
Fire officials said it was very difficult to access the dark, poorly lit premises in the commercial hub of Sadar Bazar.
Local news channels aired footage of firemen carrying people out of the narrow lanes to nearby emergency vehicles.
The building was filled with school bags and packing material, fire officials said, but cautioned they were still unsure about the cause of the blaze.
"All the rescued persons were rushed to the nearby local hospitals, which have already confirmed 35 deaths. Some of the others are also in a serious state," Sadar Bazar's assistant commissioner of police told AFP.
"Most who've died were sleeping when the fire broke out and died due to asphyxiation," they said.
The police officer -- who said emergency personnel remained on the scene -- also warned that the toll was likely to rise as "many others are in a critical condition."
Many factories and small manufacturing units in big Indian cities are often located in old, cramped quarters of the cities, where the cost of land is relatively cheaper.
Such units often also serve as sleeping quarters for poor, mostly migrant laborers and workers, who manage to save money by sleeping overnight at their workplaces.
Lack of planning and lax enforcement of building and safety regulations often leads to such deadly accidents.
"The fire in Delhi's Anaj Mandi on Rani Jhansi Road is extremely horrific. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones," Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter.
"Wishing the injured a quick recovery. Authorities are providing all possible assistance at the site of the tragedy," he added.
Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, described the incident as "very very tragic news."
"Rescue operations going on. Firemen doing their best. Injured are being taken to hospitals," Kejriwal wrote on Twitter.
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A helicopter drops water on the Cave Fire burning along Highway 154 in Los Padres National Forest, California above Santa Barbara on Tuesday. The wildfire, which started at Los Padres National Forest on Monday afternoon affected around 3,100 acres of brush and woodlands in Santa Barbara.
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MELBOURNE - The Australian state of New South Wales is gasping under the worst levels of air pollution recorded as smoke from widespread bushfires causes a spike in hospital visits and hazards including poor visibility for drivers.
Sydney, the country's most populous city, woke up to a thick haze, and blood red sun, for the fourth consecutive day on Friday, even as a cooler change brought some relief for firefighters battling scores of wildfires across the country's southeast.
The bushfires have pushed the harbor city into a rare appearance this week in the top 10 cities with the worst air pollution in the world. Having reached as high as No. 8, Sydney was sitting at No. 10 on the Air Visual global rankings on Friday morning, above Jakarta and Shenzhen, and just below Mumbai and Kolkata.
The crisis has put pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison, with critics saying he had not done enough to address the impact of climate change on Australia.
"The impacts of the ongoing drought and recent bushfires have led to some of the highest levels of air pollutants recorded in New South Wales since air quality monitoring began during the millennium drought," a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Planning, Industry and Environment said in an email.
Workers heading into the city and children going to school donned masks to deal with the hazardous air quality while 55 bush and grass fires still burned across the state after 2 weeks.
The smoke haze brought with it particulate pollution, which can be absorbed into the bloodstream, a danger that the NSW Health Ministry said had resulted in rising numbers of people showing up at hospital emergency departments.
In some areas of NSW and South Australia state, officials were advising motorists to take care while driving because of reduced visibility.
CLIMATE POLITICS
Bushfires are not unusual in Australia but the fire season has begun much earlier than usual, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees C (104°F) well ahead of the start of the southern summer and high winds hitting a landscape that has been parched by 3 years of drought.
Bushfires have already left at least 4 people dead and destroyed more than 400 homes across 2 states since the start of November. Fires are still burning in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland states.
"We have a long way to go," Victoria Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said on Australian Broadcasting Corp television.
Morrison on Friday again rejected any links between the fires and his conservative government's policies, including support for the coal industry.
"The suggestion that Australia, by having some trade-off where we could have higher emissions reduction targets, which would destroy jobs in regional communities, if we did that, then we wouldn't be having these fires. That is just not true," Morrison told 3AW radio.
Morrison's conservative government has committed to the Paris Agreement to reduce its emissions by 26-28 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Critics point out that current projections suggest it will not meet that target and have called on the government to put in place policies to address the shortfall.
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A woman rescued a badly burnt and wailing koala from an Australian bushfire on Tuesday.
The marsupial was spotted crossing a road amongst the flames near Long Flat in New South Wales (NSW).
A local woman, who told Australia's Nine News her name was Toni, rushed to the koala's aid, wrapping the animal in her shirt and a blanket and pouring water over it.
She said she would transport the injured koala to the nearby Port Macquarie Koala Hospital.
The country's koala populations have been a major victim of the flames, with more than 350 of the marsupials feared killed in a major habitat.
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PARADISE, California - Tasha Ritza lost her house, her job and her hometown on the day a wildfire destroyed Paradise, California. A year later, her life is still in tatters, she said.
"I'm at a loss. I deal with a lot of anxiety. I can't figure out if I want to stay, if I want to go," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "I haven't worked in a year.
"In a day it was all taken from me, and it's not getting any easier," said Ritza, who ran a kitchen in one of the Paradise public schools before the fire. She has moved to nearby Chico while she struggles to decide what to do next.
In California communities haunted by wildfires losses and new fire threats, the damage has not been only physical. Anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges linked to the fires are growing - and residents say they fear more trauma is ahead.
"This whole county has PTSD, depression," said Michele Evans, a young mother who worked at a dance studio in Paradise before the fire, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder.
"Everybody could use some counseling, the whole county," she added.
The wildfire that swept through the northern California town of Paradise in November 2018 was the most deadly in state history, killing 85 people.
Panicked residents fled burning homes and abandoned their cars on blocked streets, running through flames down the main roadway to escape their mountain town, once popular with retirees.
Today only about 10% of the 27,000 people who once lived there remain.
Some moved just up the road to the small mountain community of Magalia and others to bigger cities nearby such as Chico and Sacramento. But many left the area altogether after the fire destroyed almost 18,800 structures, more than half of them homes.
In the charred remains of Paradise, a few people still live in trailers on the burned-out lots where their homes once stood.
California has long suffered seasonal wildfires, but longer dry seasons and more powerful winds - which scientists link to climate change - are helping make the blazes far more destructive, raising risks - and fears.
ANXIETY, DEPRESSION
Rebecca Schmidt, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, has studied mental health among pregnant women during wildfires ever since 2017 blazes tore through the state's Napa and Sonoma wine regions.
"The most commonly reported symptom even a year later was stress and anxiety," she said. That included sleeplessness, headaches, difficulty concentrating and depression.
"It's even more worrisome when communities are disrupted, like Paradise. A lot of them lost their support system," she said.
The losses can have long-standing mental health impacts - and fear of more fires also is taking a toll, Schmidt said.
"The feeling of not being safe affects the mental health of people all around, and it's a long-term thing," she said.
In Sonoma County, where the Kincade fire burned nearly 80,000 acres (32,400 hectares) before being extinguished this month, officials are considering asking residents to vote on a 1/4 cent sales tax to fund mental health services.
County officials there also recently declared a climate emergency in an effort to make climate risks a top priority in policies and decision-making.
"I've seen more mental illness in the last two years than I've ever seen in Sonoma County before," said Kellee Ziegler, an emergency room nurse at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
During the Kincade blaze, people filled the emergency room with complaints of PTSD and suicide attempts, she said.
"This fire threw people over the edge," she said.
Dr. Grant Brenner, a New York-based psychiatrist and expert in disaster-related mental health, said mental health threats from disasters tend to be overlooked.
But as global warming brings growing threats - from stronger hurricanes and more frequent floods and droughts to larger fire risks, "the damage psychologically from climate change is going to be massive," he said.
One way to ease the pressure is letting survivors help other survivors, said Janet Leisen, whose home in the northern California city of Santa Rosa burned two years ago.
She and other Santa Rosa residents who lost homes in the 2017 blaze traveled to Healdsburg during the Kincade fire to offer advice and support on recovering and rebuilding, working from a local assistance center set up for newly affected residents.
"As a victim, we know that it's difficult to talk to people who haven't been there," she said. "It's easier to talk to someone who understands that it's not just stuff (lost), that this is a traumatic event."
Jessie Mercer, an art therapist who lived in Paradise, said she poured her grief into creating a "Phoenix" sculpture, built from the keys of homes lost in the blaze.
The sculpture was unveiled as residents returned to Paradise this month to mark the fire's one-year anniversary.
"I brought us home, even if just for today," Mercer said at the unveiling.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MELBOURNE -- Rising temperatures, lightning strikes and gusty winds further raised fire danger on both coasts of Australia on Sunday as the country already battles more than 120 bushfires and firefighters work day and night trying to contain them.
Western Australia declared catastrophic fire ratings for four of the state regions as temperatures were set to rise well above 40°Celsius on Sunday.
Although the regions are thinly populated, the highest warning means that any fires that start are likely to be so devastating that even the most prepared properties may not survive it.
Australia's bushfires are a common and deadly threat but the early outbreak this year in the southern spring has already claimed several lives and destroyed hundreds of homes.
Queensland authorities issued emergency warnings for part of the state, where nearly 70 fires were burning early on Sunday.
"Today is another day for severe and extreme fire danger," Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said on Twitter. "Please, remain vigilant."
In New South Wales, where 303 homes have been lost in the past week and which saw its first-ever catastrophic fire rating issued for Sydney on Tuesday, there were 56 fires burning across the state with nearly half yet to be contained, NSW Rural Fire Services said.
"Crews overnight undertook backburning behind properties due to forecast elevated fire dangers today," the fire services said on Twitter.
"This important work will continue as conditions allow throughout the day."
Back burns are fires deliberately lit to clear dry undergrowth to protect properties and keep the fire from spreading.
Conditions are expected to further worsen for most of Australia's east coast as of Tuesday as temperatures are set to rise amid continued dry conditions.
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SINGAPORE - Extreme floods in Venice, fires in Australia and even an outbreak of plague in China have been attributed to climate change this week, while researchers have warned that global warming could saddle future generations with life-long illness.
Venice declared a state of emergency on Wednesday after "apocalyptic" floods swept through the lagoon city, flooding its historic basilica and inundating squares and centuries-old buildings.
"This is the result of climate change," city mayor Luigi Brugnaro said on Twitter.
City thoroughfares were turned into raging torrents, stone balustrades were shattered, boats tossed ashore and gondolas smashed against their moorings as the lagoon tide peaked at 187 centimeters.
It was the highest since the record 194 centimeters set in 1966, but rising water levels are becoming a regular threat to the tourist jewel.
"Venice is on its knees," said Brugnaro. "The damage will run into hundreds of millions of euros."
On the other side of the world, parts of Australia have been ravaged by wild bushfires this week, with four people killed and communities forced to flee the flames.
Since 2016, parts of northern and inland New South Wales, along with southern Queensland, have been in a drought that the Bureau of Meteorology says is being driven, in part, by warmer sea-surface temperatures affecting rainfall patterns.
Air temperatures have also warmed over the past century, increasing the ferocity of droughts and fires.
But links between climate change and extreme weather events have become a political football in Australia.
The coal-industry supporting government accepts the need to cut emissions while arguing that stronger environmental action would cripple its economy.
That pits the country against its Pacific island neighbors which are particularly susceptible to warmer temperatures and rising seas.
Globally, concern about effective action has surged since U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the international Paris Accord on climate change and took steps to dismantle environmental protections.
Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are among the world's only leaders who publicly question the science of climate change, despite devastating fires in their countries - in California and the Amazon basin - that environmentalists at least partly blame on global warming.
PLAGUE
While the politicians argue, concern is growing about the impact on health of a warmer world.
In China, health officials have reported a rare outbreak of pneumonic plague after two cases were confirmed this week in Beijing.
The two were infected in the province of Inner Mongolia, where rodent populations have expanded dramatically after persistent droughts, worsened by climate change, state media said.
An area the size of the Netherlands was hit by a "rat plague" last summer.
The wider implications for health are sobering.
The Lancet medical journal published a study this week saying climate change was already harming people's health by increasing the number of extreme weather events and exacerbating air pollution.
A warmer world brings risks of food shortages, infectious diseases, floods, and extreme heat.
If nothing is done, the impacts could burden an entire generation with disease and illness throughout their lives, researchers said.
"Children are particularly vulnerable to the health risks of a changing climate. Their bodies and immune systems are still developing, leaving them more susceptible to disease and environmental pollutants," said Nick Watts, one of those who led the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change study.
Health damage in early childhood is "persistent and pervasive," he warned, bringing lifelong consequences.
"Without immediate action from all countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions, gains in wellbeing and life expectancy will be compromised, and climate change will come to define the health of an entire generation," he told a London briefing.
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SYDNEY - The death toll from devastating bushfires in eastern Australia has risen to four after a man's body was discovered in a scorched area of bushland, police said Thursday.
Residents found the body outside the New South Wales town of Kempsey, one of several areas hit by bushfires in recent days.
Police said formal identification was yet to take place but it was believed to be the body of a 58-year-old man who lived in a shed. He was last seen on Friday.
Three others have perished in bushfires in New South Wales, the state worst affected by fires that broke out along the eastern seaboard late last week.
Hundreds of houses have been damaged or destroyed and more than one million hectares (2.5 million acres) of land burnt in the blazes.
Tough conditions were expected to flare again in Queensland and New South Wales at the weekend as the temperature rises and winds pick up.
More than 100 blazes were burning on Thursday but a respite from "catastrophic" conditions has seen the danger from many fires downgraded and residents returning to sift through the remains of their homes.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Sharnie Moren and her 18-month-old daughter Charlotte look on as thick smoke rises from bushfires near Nana Glen, near Coffs Harbour, Australia, on Tuesday. Queensland and New South Wales have recently declared a state of emergency as fires raged in Australia’s eastern region, killing three and destroying more than 150 homes.
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SYDNEY, Australia – At least two people have died and 100 homes have been destroyed as an unprecedented number of bushfires tore through eastern Australia Saturday.
New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian also said seven people were unaccounted for, as firefighters tried to contain dozens of out-of-control blazes that have raged in the state since Friday.
"I'm sorry to say that number can increase during the day," she said of the death toll, adding that despite some respite Saturday, next week's weather forecast "could mean we're not through the worst of it."
Emergency services said they had found the remains of one person in a car and another woman died despite medics struggling for several hours to save her.
"At this stage, it appears at least 100 homes have been destroyed in yesterday's bush fires," the fire service said in an update early Saturday.
More than 30 people have been injured, most of them firefighters.
Almost 100 blazes pockmarked the New South Wales and Queensland countryside -- although just five of them remained highly dangerous.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the large number of fires was "incredibly concerning." He urged residents to "stay safe" and "listen to emergency services."
"I'm getting regular updates and we stand ready to offer any assistance needed," he tweeted.
Firefighters had warned they were in "uncharted territory" as they deployed 1,200 firefighters and 70 aircraft across a roughly 1,000-kilometer stretch of the seaboard.
Bushfires are common in Australia and a vast corps of firefighters had already been tackling sporadic blazes for months in the lead-up to the southern hemisphere summer.
But this is a dramatic start to what scientists predict will be a tough fire season ahead -- with climate change and unfavorable weather cycles helping create a tinderbox of strong winds, low humidity and high temperatures.
While conditions eased markedly in some areas and the forecast was downgraded from "extreme" to "high" or "very high" Saturday, a total fire ban remained in place in many areas and further high winds were predicted.
'WE CAN'T GET TO EVERYONE'
Firefighters had described the conditions Friday as "difficult" and "dangerous."
"Unfortunately, many people have called for help but due to the size and speed of the fires we couldn't get to everyone, even by road or helicopter," New South Wales firefighters said.
In some areas, residents were stuck and told to simply "seek shelter as it is too late to leave."
Local radio stopped normal programming and provided instructions about how to try to survive fires if trapped at home or in a vehicle.
Across the central coast smoke could be seen billowing high into the sky and residents took to social media to post photos and videos of smoke-laden tangerine skies and flames engulfing stories-tall eucalypts within sight of their homes.
Authorities said some of the fires were creating their own weather conditions -- pyrocumulus clouds that enveloped entire towns.
Meanwhile, high winds flung embers and burnt debris far ahead of the fires' front lines, depositing the dangerous detritus on the balconies and front yards of unsuspecting residents.
Despite easing conditions, a prolonged drought and low humidity levels will continue to make circumstances combustible.
Earlier this month some of the same fires cloaked Sydney in hazardous smoke for days, giving the city a higher concentration of particles per million than cities like Bangkok, Jakarta or Hong Kong.
Swathes of Australia have gone months without adequate rainfall, forcing farmers to truck in water at exorbitant cost, sell off livestock or leave their land to lay fallow.
On Wednesday, Morrison's climate-skeptic government announced a package of low-cost loans worth around 1 billion Australian dollars (US$690 million), designed to help drought-stricken farmers struggling with the latest "big dry."
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Authorities are struggling to fully contain the massive Kincade fire in the American state of California more than a week after it was ignited. ABS-CBN North America bureau chief TJ Manotoc walks us through the latest on one of California's worst wildfires.—ANC Top Story, Thursday, 31 October, 2019
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LOS ANGELES, United States —Much of California was on high alert Friday as wind-driven wildfires tore through the state's south, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and destroying multiple structures and homes.
News reports said an 89-year-old woman died in Calimesa, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, when fire swept through a mobile home park overnight after the driver of a garbage truck that caught fire dumped his burning load nearby.
Another man in his 50s died Thursday night from cardiac arrest as he spoke with firefighters battling the so-called Saddleridge brush fire in the San Fernando Valley, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of downtown Los Angeles, fire officials said.
The fire grew from 60 acres to 4,700 acres overnight, prompting evacuation orders for more than 100,000 people in the area.
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Ralph Terrazas said the blaze was being fuelled by dry conditions and high winds known as the Santa Ana winds.
"Do not wait to leave. If we ask you to evacuate, please evacuate," he urged residents.
He said some 1,000 firefighters were fighting the blaze that was zero percent contained in early morning and which forced the partial shutdown of several major highways. The metro line in the area was also shut down.
"We've calculated that the fire is moving at a rate of 800 acres per hour," Terrazas said, adding that it would probably take days to get it under control.
Some 200 firefighters and helicopters were meanwhile battling the brush fire -- dubbed the Sandlewood fire -- that tore through the mobile home park.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, but authorities ordered some 1,900 homes in the area be evacuated.
The Los Angeles Police Department said on Twitter it had declared a "citywide tactical alert."
Evacuation centers are open for those forced to leave their homes, said LA mayor Eric Garcetti.
IN THE DARK
Weather forecasters have warned of more strong winds and "extremely critical fire" conditions Friday and state authorities have issued their highest fire alert -- a red flag warning.
The wildfires erupted as California's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), implemented rolling power blackouts that affected some 2 million people in Northern California this week.
About 312,000 customers remained in the dark Friday as a result of the shutoffs designed to reduce the threat of wildfire that can be sparked by lines downed in heavy winds.
Many schools and universities were also closed in northern parts of the state as people stocked up on gasoline, water, batteries and other basics, with frustration mounting at the blackouts condemned by some as "third world."
"We're seeing a scale and scope of something that no state in the 21st century should experience," Governor Gavin Newsom said Thursday, blaming decades of what he called neglect and mismanagement by PG&E.
"This is not, from my perspective, a climate change story as much as a story about greed and mismanagement over the course of decades," Newsom said. "Neglect, a desire to advance not public safety but profits."
PG&E has defended the outages as necessary for safety reasons and has said it will take days before power is restored to all customers as inspections must be conducted on power lines in all of the affected areas.
"This is not how we want to serve you but blackouts can happen again," Bill Johnson, the CEO of the company said Thursday.
Last November, PG&E's faulty power lines were determined to have sparked the deadliest wildfire in the state's modern history, which killed 86 and destroyed the town of Paradise.
FIL-AMS
Filipina Girlie Collado and her family had to evacuate their Northridge home Thursday night.
"We all kind of feel helpless. There’s nothing much else we can do but we feel fortunate that we are safe and we are with family... So we’re counting our blessings," she said.
Joe Arciaga, who lives a couple of miles from the fire line, said he and his family have been on full alert—ready for whatever may happen.
"It was hard to sleep last night because of all the fire trucks and police cars going up and down the street where I live," he said.
"The air is pretty acrid right now. This is a reality for us Filipino-Americans here living in the San Fernando Valley… Santa Clarita Valley."—With a report from Henni Espinosa, ABS-CBN North America
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SEOUL/OSLO - A fire that spread across two oil tankers in a South Korean port injured 10 people on Saturday, coastguard and fire officials said, adding the blaze had largely been put out.
An explosion occurred on the Stolt Groenland, a 25,000-tonne, Cayman Island-flagged oil tanker, at the southern port of Ulsan at around 10:50 a.m. (0150 GMT), a coastguard official said.
There were 25 sailors aboard, including Russians and Filipinos.
The fire spread to another oil tanker docked nearby, the 9,000-tonne, South Korean-flagged Bow Dalian, with 21 aboard, he said.
All of the sailors on both ships were rescued, but 10 people, most of whom were workers at the terminal, have been wounded so far, a fire official told Reuters. Nine of them were South Korean, including one in a critical condition, and the other was from India.
"The fire has largely been put out but we are checking inside the vessels if there are any flames left or smoke coming out," the first official said.
Any impact on the terminal's output or the surrounding environment appears minimal for now as the ships were at the port for repair, he added.
The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the incident, officials said.
Stolt Tankers, a unit of Oslo-listed Stolt-Nielsen which owns the first ship, expressed concern about the incident.
"The safety of all people on-site and the protection of the environment is paramount to the company's operations," it said in a statement.
Norway's Odfjell, which owns the other vessel, Bow Dalian, said the ship had been towed to safety and its crew accounted for.
"One of our crew members is undergoing treatment for light injuries stemming from the fire," Odfjell spokeswoman Anngun Dybsland said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil—A fire erupted in a hospital in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, leaving at least 11 people dead and forcing medical staff and desperate relatives to rescue patients from smoke-filled wards.
Hospital authorities said the blaze on Thursday evening was thought to have been caused by a short circuit in a generator, though the city mayor said sabotage could not be ruled out.
Firefighters battled the blaze at the private Badim hospital, near Rio's iconic Maracana World Cup football stadium, for several hours before extinguishing it.
Hospital director Fabio Santoro said Friday that 11 deaths had been confirmed and searches were still underway for one patient who had been reported missing.
Emergency personnel searched through the burned-out building until the early hours of Friday to recover bodies.
The hospital said there had been 103 patients in the building when the fire broke out and that "more than 100 doctors were mobilized to bring help to the victims." Seventy-seven of them had been moved to other hospitals while 14 had been cleared to return to their homes.
During the evacuation, patients on gurneys and stretchers were carried into surrounding streets as ambulances struggled through crowds of curious onlookers to transport patients to other medical facilities.
"The doctor arrived in the room and told us that there was fire and that we had to evacuate as quickly as possible," 58-year-old Teresa Dias, who was visiting her father, told AFP.
"They put him on a wheelchair and tied him up to prevent him from falling out. There were a lot of other sick people on stretchers on the stairs."
Staff wheeled medical equipment outside, and the most seriously ill patients were taken at first to a nearby children's nursery.
Sheets tied together were seen hanging from hospital windows.
SMOKE SPREAD QUICKLY
"I was able to take my mother out of her room and when we got to the fire escape, there were a lot of people running around," lawyer Carlos Otorelo, whose 93-year-old mother is being treated for pneumonia, told the UOL news website.
"It was terrible because the smoke spread very quickly."
Other relatives were forced to wait outside for word on their loved ones as dense black fumes filled the sky.
"I heard the loud noise of glass breaking and thought it was shooting or a robbery when I heard screaming. I went downstairs to see what was happening and I saw a lot of smoke," said local resident Terezinha Machado, 76.
Hospital authorities said smoke spread to all floors of the building, and pointed to a generator in the oldest part of the complex as the probable cause of the fire.
Mayor Marcelo Crivella said investigators would probe whether the fire was an accident.
"Experts will have to find whether anyone was responsible. I hope I am wrong, but we have to check there was no sabotage, we have to investigate," he told reporters when visiting the hospital Friday.
The fire service said the premises had safety certificates.
Rio has been hit by 2 major fires in the past year, including when the National Museum was gutted by flames last September, destroying most of its priceless collections.
In February, 10 teenage members of the Flamengo football club were killed in the prefabricated building where they were staying.
Faulty air conditioning systems were the cause of both fires.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
A firefighter extinguishes a fire in a forest at Rambutan village, in Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra province, on Wednesday. Malaysia has stepped up pressure on neighboring Indonesia to tackle huge fires tearing through its rainforests and smothering Southeast Asia in smog.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Fashion giant H&M on Thursday announced it was suspending leather purchases from Brazil in response to the Amazon fires that have provoked a global outcry.
The ban comes after US-based VF Corporation, which owns a string of brands including Timberland, Vans and The North Face, announced late last month it would no longer buy leather from Brazil over concerns about the destruction of the world's largest rainforest.
H&M said it was imposing a temporary freeze on orders until it had confidence the leather was not causing "environmental harm."
"Due to the severe fires in the Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest, and the connections to cattle production, we have decided to place a temporary ban on leather from Brazil," the Swedish clothing retail firm said in a statement to AFP.
"The ban will be active until there are credible assurance systems in place to verify that the leather does not contribute to environmental harm in the Amazon," it said.
The blazes that have engulfed parts of the world's largest rainforest—crucial for maintaining a stable global climate—have sparked a diplomatic spat between Brazil and Europe that threatens to torpedo a major trade deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron has accused his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro of lying to him about his commitments on climate change and vowed to block the EU-Mercosur trade deal involving Brazil that took decades to negotiate.
Bolsonaro last week signed a decree to ban burning throughout the country for 2 months.
H&M was last year among dozens of top fashion industry firms to pledge at UN climate talks to reduce their combined greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030.
The 43 firms agreed to prioritize "climate-friendly" materials and low-carbon transport, and to stop installing coal-fired boilers at manufacturing sites from no later than 2025.
soure: news.abs-cbn.com
