LOS ANGELES • California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in three counties because of the Glass and Zogg fires that have claimed three lives and burned thousands of hectares in the state since Sunday.
The counties are Napa, Sonoma and Shasta, the governor's office said in a statement late on Monday.
Governor Newsom also sent a letter to US President Donald Trump via the Federal Emergency Management Agency, requesting him to declare a major disaster, which would strengthen response to fires across the state, the statement added.
The declaration is meant to assist state and local wildfire response and recovery efforts in Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Mendocino, San Bernardino, San Diego and Siskiyou counties.
The request comes after the deadly Zogg fire destroyed 146 structures and charred 12,545 hectares in Shasta county and coincided with the outbreak of another conflagration in the heart of California's wine country north of the Bay Area in San Francisco.
That blaze, dubbed the Glass Fire, has spread across 14,568 hectares of similar terrain in Napa and Sonoma counties - both famed wine-producing regions - since early Sunday.
Three fatalities - all civilians - were reported in the Zogg Fire by the county sheriff and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire). The blaze erupted on Sunday near Redding, about 320km north of San Francisco.
No further details about the victims or how they perished were immediately provided. But the deaths bring to 29 the number of people killed since the middle of August in a California wildfire season of historic proportions.
Meanwhile, the Glass Fire has incinerated more than 100 homes and other buildings, forcing thousands of residents to flee and threatening world-renowned vineyards, according to CalFire.
They marked the latest flash points in a destructive spate of wildfires this summer across the west coast of the United States.
Both fires were listed at zero containment as of Monday evening. The cause of each was under investigation.
In California this year, wildfires have scorched 1.5 million hectares since January - far exceeding any single year in state history.
They have been stoked by intense, prolonged bouts of heat, high winds and other weather extremes that scientists attribute to climate change.
More than 7,000 homes and other structures have burned statewide so far this year.
Over 100,000 homes and business have suffered power outages across northern California since Sunday, some from precautionary shutoffs of transmission lines to reduce wildfire risks in the midst of extremely windy, hot, dry weather, Pacific Gas and Electric reported.
Meanwhile, red-flag warnings for extreme wildfire risks remained posted for much of Northern California, forecasting low humidity and gale-force wind gusts.
REUTERS
