- The Delta Fire erupted on Wednesday afternoon, shut down Interstate 5 and trapped drivers in their vehicles
- Fire officials said Thursday that the fire is zero per cent contained & has tripled in size, prompting evacuations
- It spread to 5,120 acres on Wednesday, but by Thursday afternoon the raging fire reached 14,720 acres
- Video of the Delta Fire erupting shows trapped drivers in vehicles and tractor-trailers along I-5 on Wednesday
- A woman is heard crying and begging her boyfriend to get out of their tractor-trailer and run to safety
- The blaze was human-caused, fire officials said, but they didn't indicate whether it was arson or accident
- About 17 big-rigs were abandoned and at least four caught fire as flames roared up hillsides on the freeway
A forest fire in California continues to rage and is zero per cent contained as of Thursday morning, just a day after the explosive blaze trapped dozens of drivers in their big-rigs and vehicles along a freeway.
The Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest grew after it shut down Interstate 5 Wednesday afternoon.
It forced truckers and motorists to abandon vehicles and flee to safety.
Fire officials said the wildfire tripled in size overnight, prompting mandatory evacuations.
The US Forest Service said the blaze burning along Interstate 5 near Redding has spread across 14,720 acres. It had reached 5,120 acres on Wednesday.
Officials did not immediately say how many people the evacuation order affected. The fire is in a rural area with scattered homes.
A shocking video of trapped drivers was shared on Instagram. It shows the moment a terrified woman begged her boyfriend to abandon their big-rig as they watched the fire grow rapidly.
In the video, the woman is heard pleading with her boyfriend to get out of their vehicle and leave as the fire raged closer to them.
'Brandon we got to get out and walk! We can't stay right here,' the woman yells.
'It's coming so close, please... we got to walk baby,' she says through tears as trees burst into flames and sheets of fire roiled on the side of the roadway of Interstate 5.
In the terrifying footage several big-rigs are seen attempting to back up and escape the fire, but traffic was at a standstill.
The wildfire closed down dozens of miles of a major California freeway only weeks after a nearby blaze left neighborhoods in ruins and killed eight people.
The Delta Fire erupted Wednesday afternoon and within hours had devoured more than 5,000 acres of timber and brush on both sides of Interstate 5 near the Oregon state line.
It was reported at 12.51pm near the Vollmers exit on I-5 north of Lakehead, California.
Initially reported as three fires, they merged into one fire.
The blaze was human-caused, fire officials said, but they didn't indicate whether it was arson or accident.
Truckers were forced to abandon their vehicles as flames roared up hillsides.
About 17 big-rigs were abandoned and at least four caught fire, Lt Cmdr Kyle Foster of the California Highway Patrol's Mount Shasta office told the Los Angeles Times.
About 45 miles of the I-5 are closed in both directions, said Chris Losi, a spokesman for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
California Highway Patrol Officer Jason Morton said officials from different agencies will meet Thursday to determine if they can reopen the highway, which is a key route for commercial trucks.
The highway runs from the US-Mexico border through California, Oregon and Washington state to the US-Canada border.
0 comments:
Post a Comment