Firefighters grappling with a blaze that has destroyed at least 130 homes in California said Friday they had made progress in their fight as a turn in the weather offered a break. Hurricane-strength winds this week fuelled an explosion in the Mountain Fire near Camarillo, outside Los Angeles, which grew rapidly to over 20,000 acres. Thousands of people in the path of the inferno were forced to flee, some with only minutes to gather possessions and pets as unpredictable flames leapt from home to home.
Over a 100 firefighters battled a rare brushfire in New York City’s Brooklyn borough as prolonged drought and unusually high temperatures have fuelled a series of blazes in the northeast United States, authorities said Saturday. There were no immediate reports of damage to buildings in the blaze late Friday in the Prospect Park area, and by Saturday all but a few hot spots had been extinguished.
Mayor Eric Adams warned on X: “After the driest October on record, NYC is under a drought watch, which highly increases our risk of fires.”
Hundreds of brushfires have broken out in New Jersey and Connecticut in recent weeks amid an unseasonably warm and dry fall — including three blazes that forced evacuations and roads closures.
