
California blaze spreads in hot, windy conditions in year's largest wildfire
The Madre fire had exploded to more than 50,000 acres by Thursday afternoon, after breaking out in San Luis Obispo county on Wednesday afternoon and tearing through grasslands as dry. Extreme heat has raised the fire risk for large portions of the state before the Fourth of July holiday.
Acres burned
US wildfires are measured in terms of acres. While the size of a wildfire doesn't necessarily correlate to its destructive impact, acreage provides a way to understand a fire's footprint and how quickly it has grown.
There are 2.47 acres in a hectare, and 640 acres in a square mile, but this can be hard to visualise. Here are some easy comparisons: one acre equates to roughly the size of an American football field. London's Heathrow airport is about 3,000 acres. Manhattan covers roughly 14,600 acres, while Chicago is roughly 150,000 acres, and Los Angeles is roughly 320,000 acres.
Megafire
A megafire is defined by the National Interagency Fire Center as a wildfire that has burned more than 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares).
Containment level
A wildfire's containment level indicates how much progress firefighters have made in controlling the fire. Containment is achieved by creating perimeters the fire can't move across. This is done through methods such as putting fire retardants on the ground, digging trenches, or removing brush and other flammable fuels.
Containment is measured in terms of the percentage of the fire that has been surrounded by these control lines. A wildfire with a low containment level, such as 0% or 5%, is essentially burning out of control. A fire with a high level of containment, such as 90%, isn't necessarily extinguished but rather has a large protective perimeter and a rate of growth that is under control.
Evacuation orders and warnings
Evacuation warnings and orders are issued by officials when a wildfire is causing imminent danger to people's life and property. According to the California office of emergency services, an evacuation warning means that it's a good idea to leave an area or get ready to leave soon. An evacuation order means that you should leave the area immediately.
Red flag warning
A red flag warning is a type of forecast issued by the National Weather Service that indicates when weather conditions are likely to spark or spread wildfires. These conditions typically include dryness, low humidity, high winds and heat.
Prescribed burn
A prescribed burn, or a controlled burn, is a fire that is intentionally set under carefully managed conditions in order to improve the health of a landscape. Prescribed burns are carried out by trained experts such as members of the US Forest Service and Indigenous fire practitioners. Prescribed burns help remove flammable vegetation and reduce the risk of larger, more catastrophic blazes, among other benefits.
Prescribed burning was once a common tool among Native American tribes who used 'good fire' to improve the land, but was limited for much of the last century by a US government approach based on fire suppression. In recent years, US land managers have returned to embracing the benefits of prescribed burns, and now conduct thousands across the country every year.
Evacuation orders and warnings were issued for tiny communities near State Route 166 as the flames moved through hilly terrain toward the Carrizo Plain national monument. The region, which lies about 125 miles (200km) north-west of Los Angeles, contains vast grasslands that draw visitors in the spring to enjoy its wildflowers.
The fire was pushed by summer gusts that typically increase as the sun starts going down, said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
'The winds are pretty light during the day, but they do pick up pretty substantially in the afternoon and evening hours,' Kittell said. He said gusts could reach 40mph (64km/h) later in the day Thursday, posing new challenges for firefighters working in extreme heat: temperatures in the area were expected to climb to nearly 100F (37C) by the afternoon.
As of Thursday morning, the fire was at 5% containment, according to the state's wildfire agency, Cal Fire. The cause of the fire was not yet known.
A spokesperson for Cal Fire told the San Luis Obispo Tribune that more than 300 first responders were battling the blaze
The Madre fire is one of at least a dozen blazes burning across California. Western states are bracing for a potentially explosive summer wildfire season due to a dry winter, followed by warm spring and summer temperatures that have dried out vegetation. Farther north in Oregon, which has been dealing with record-breaking early season heat, officials warned that a large wildfire in June 'should come as a reminder to Oregonians to be ready'.
Firefighters and experts recently said that the US federal firefighting force is worryingly underprepared for the summer due to a series of changes ushered in by the Trump administration, including cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) – the agency that provides US weather monitoring – as well as staffing and budget reductions.
Officials have urged residents to take precautions over the holiday weekend, a time when fireworks are notorious for starting fires.
'In California, human activities account for about 95% of all wildfire starts, often starting from preventable actions like improperly extinguished campfires, malfunctioning equipment, and fireworks,' the office of California governor, Gavin Newsom, said in a statement on Thursday.
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The Guardian
37 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘No warning at all': Texas flood survivors question safety planning and officials' response
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Extraordinary tales of resilience have also emerged alongside videos of the destruction and loss that are circulating on social media. On Sunday, a video was posted on X of girls from Camp Mystic being evacuated from the camp and singing the hymns Pass It On and Amazing Grace as they crossed a bridge over the still torrential Guadalupe River. The new round of rainfall in the area prompted an alert of a 'dangerous and life-threatening situation', it said, adding: 'Do not attempt to travel unless unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.' The co-ordination between Kerr county officials and the National Weather Service has become a flashpoint of its own. Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville, one of the hardest-hit areas, told reporters on Sunday afternoon: 'We don't want to speculate at this time. There will be a formal review that will focus on future preparedness.' When asked why Kerr county had not moved to evacuate the area before the storm hit, Rice said that authorities were preparing for the storm, 'but unfortunately the rain hit at an inopportune time and right at the most inopportune areas where the north and south forks of the river converge.' 'We want to focus on continuing rescue operations,' he added. Kerr county does not have outdoor weather sirens that are common in tornado zones and were once common across the US as relic of cold war nuclear attack alert systems. Since the flood, local resident Nicole Wilson started an online petition 'urgently' calling for Kerrville and Kerr county to implement an outdoor system. 'A well-placed siren system will provide critical extra minutes for families, schools, camps, businesses and visitors to seek shelter and evacuate when needed,' she told KXAN. 'This is not just a wish – it is a necessary investment in public safety.' But questions are also being asked about whether Kerr county commissioners' court and flood plains administrator had approved development along the river bank that may have skirted rules issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) that control where homes may be built in areas vulnerable to flooding. At a Red Cross center in Kerrville on Sunday, flood survivor Kathy Perkins said shehad been alerted to the storm by thunder and lightning. Emergency workers had come to her town, Ingram, and turned on their sirens. 'They were supposed to wake everyone up but I just left. It was just two guys in a white truck and they said to me: 'You gotta get out, you don't have much time.' It must have already hit in Hunt.' Perkins was luckier than some. Her trailer home was damaged by water, but some of her neighbors' homes got swept away or moved around by the water. 'Many people are angry right now, but you wait 'til the parents get here,' she said, referring to the parents of the children lost at Camp Mystic. 'Those parents are from everywhere.' The authorities, she added, 'won't just be able to go hush-hush. Those kids should have been safe and they weren't.' Perkins said everyone in the area noticed that Judge Rob Kelly, Kerr county's most senior elected official, seemed to shirk responsibility when he said on Friday: 'We didn't know this flood was coming. Rest assured, no one knew this kind of flood was coming. We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States.' 'He said: 'We didn't know nothing.' Everybody caught that,' Perkins said. Lesa Baird, a resident of Hunt who was also staying at the Red Cross shelter, said she heard 'no warning at all, none whatsoever' when the floods came. 'I heard something going on. I put my feet on the floor and felt the water. I picked up a bunch a kittens in a box and woke my friend up. He had to break a window to get out of the house.' But as they got out of the home, Baird, 65, followed a cable strung from the house and reached a tree. 'We got up in the tree and he pulled me up as best he could. Thank God he did because I could dangle my foot down and feel the water. We stayed up there for what seemed like hours.' When the waters began to recede, they climbed down and walked to the local Baptist church. Now recovering from her ordeal, Baird said she had never seen the Guadalupe River flood as badly as it had. Like many others, Baird faces the kind of limbo that affects natural disaster survivors: she wants to go home. 'There's no home to go to. It's done,' she said, declining to be photographed except for the bruises on her arms incurred during her ordeal. 'I may be able to salvage a bunch of things here and there, but this is my stuff,' she said, pointing to some bags of donated clothes. The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post See our guide at for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each.


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Families sift through debris and begin cleanup as Texas flood death toll rises
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Texas floods: rescue teams continue search for missing with more heavy rains forecast
Update: Date: 2025-07-07T11:35:11.000Z Title: Residents in central', 'Texas', 'were observing a day of prayer on Sunday for at least 82 people killed and dozens missing in Friday's', 'devastating flash flooding', ', as a search and rescue operation for survivors began to morph into a grim exercise of recovering bodies. Content: At least 82 people have been killed and dozens remain missing after devastating flash flooding Rescue turns into grim recovery operation Tom Ambrose Mon 7 Jul 2025 13.35 CEST First published on Mon 7 Jul 2025 11.51 CEST From 11.51am CEST 11:51 Hello and welcome to the Texas floods live blog. I am Tom Ambrose and I'll be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours. Residents in central Texas were observing a day of prayer on Sunday for at least 82 people killed and dozens missing in Friday's devastating flash flooding, as a search and rescue operation for survivors began to morph into a grim exercise of recovering bodies. Relatives continued an anxious wait for news of 10 girls and one camp counselor still unaccounted for from a riverside summer camp that was overwhelmed by flash flooding from the Guadalupe River, which rose 26ft (8 meters) in 45 minutes on Friday morning after torrential pre-dawn rain north of San Antonio. Kerr county's sheriff, Larry Leitha, said at a briefing on Sunday afternoon that 68 people have been confirmed dead there, including 28 children, with the search continuing for the missing girls and their counselor from Camp Mystic, along the river. Texas's governor, Greg Abbott, said in an earlier briefing that another 10 fatalities have been confirmed in neighboring counties. Abbott said that officials were still searching for 41 known missing persons across the state. 'We are seeing bodies recovered all over up and down,' Kerrville's city manager, Dalton Rice, told reporters at an earlier briefing on Sunday. Authorities said about 850 people had been rescued, with more than 400 people involved in the search and rescue operation. By Sunday morning, water levels had fallen to just a foot or two higher than before the flood. On Sunday afternoon, people in Kerrville received an emergency alert on their phone, reading: 'High confidence of river flooding at North Folks of river. Move to higher ground.' Further rain on Saturday and into Sunday morning hampered search efforts of crews using boats, helicopters and drones. Abbott promised responders would remain at the scene until every individual was recovered. He said he instructed responders to assume all missing persons were still alive. Read our full report here: Here are the latest headlines from Texas: Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, Associated Press cited local officials as saying. Abbott said additional stretches of heavy rain lasting into Tuesday could produce more dangerous flooding, especially in places already saturated. Relatives continued an anxious wait for news of 10 girls and one camp counsellor from the riverside Camp Mystic still unaccounted for after it was overwhelmed by flash flooding from the Guadalupe River, which rose 26ft (8 meters) in 45 minutes on Friday morning. Families were allowed to look around the camp from Sunday morning as nearby searches continued. The Texas Division of Emergency Management chief said on Sunday he was receiving unconfirmed reports of 'an additional wall of water' flowing down some of the creeks in the Guadalupe Rivershed as rain continued to fall on soil in the region already saturated from Friday's rains. 'We're evacuating parts of the river right now because we are worried about another wall of river coming down in those areas,' Nim Kidd said. Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made. Kerrville city manager Dalton Rice said there would be a full review of the emergency response. President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration on Sunday for Kerr county and said he would likely visit on Friday, calling what took place 'absolutely horrible'. Asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), he said that was something 'we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working'. 1.35pm CEST 13:35 Here are some of the latest images of the devastation caused by the tragic flash flooding in Texas… 12.54pm CEST 12:54 People have recounted their ordeal after deadly flooding swept through central Texas on Friday morning… 12.29pm CEST 12:29 President Donald Trump, who said on Sunday he would visit the disaster scene, probably this coming Friday, has previously outlined plans to scale back the federal government's role in responding to natural disasters, leaving states to shoulder more of the burden themselves. Some experts questioned whether cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration, including to the agency that oversees the National Weather Service, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm, Reuters reported. Trump's administration has overseen thousands of job cuts from the National Weather Service's parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, leaving many weather offices understaffed, former NOAA director Rick Spinrad said. Ahead of Friday's floods, the Weather Service office near San Antonio, which oversees warnings issued in Kerr County, had one key vacancy - a warning coordination meteorologist, who is responsible for working with emergency managers and the public to ensure people know what to do when a disaster strikes. The person who served in that role for decades was among hundreds of Weather Service employees who accepted early retirement offers and left the agency at the end of April, media reported. Trump pushed back when asked on Sunday if federal government cuts hobbled the disaster response or left key job vacancies at the Weather Service under Trump's oversight. 'That water situation, that all is, and that was really the Biden setup,' he said referencing his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. 'But I wouldn't blame Biden for it, either. I would just say this is 100-year catastrophe.' 12.11pm CEST 12:11 As the death toll continues to rise after deadly flash flooding in central Texas, a frantic search is under way for missing campers, vacationers and residents. Hunt resident Macon Ware's five granddaughters had just finished a summer camping session at Camp Mystic, the all-girl camp where dozens of campers were swept away in the flood. 'Some of their friends were there for the second session and my heart goes out to all those little girls,' he says. See the full video below… 12.04pm CEST 12:04 Ramon Antonio Vargas Pope Leo XIV on Sunday voiced his sympathies for the families whose lives have been upended by the flooding in Texas's Hill Country, which left about 80 dead – many of them children – and others missing. After reciting Angelus prayers at the Vatican, the American-born pontiff remarked in English: 'I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in a summer camp in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas. 'We pray for them.' The worldwide Roman Catholic church leader's comments were notable in that they addressed what is the deadliest natural disaster in his home country since he became the first US-born pope ever in May. They were also ecumenical in the sense that the girls' summer camp to which he referred is a Christian – though not specifically Catholic – institution. Updated at 12.26pm CEST 11.51am CEST 11:51 Hello and welcome to the Texas floods live blog. I am Tom Ambrose and I'll be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours. Residents in central Texas were observing a day of prayer on Sunday for at least 82 people killed and dozens missing in Friday's devastating flash flooding, as a search and rescue operation for survivors began to morph into a grim exercise of recovering bodies. Relatives continued an anxious wait for news of 10 girls and one camp counselor still unaccounted for from a riverside summer camp that was overwhelmed by flash flooding from the Guadalupe River, which rose 26ft (8 meters) in 45 minutes on Friday morning after torrential pre-dawn rain north of San Antonio. Kerr county's sheriff, Larry Leitha, said at a briefing on Sunday afternoon that 68 people have been confirmed dead there, including 28 children, with the search continuing for the missing girls and their counselor from Camp Mystic, along the river. Texas's governor, Greg Abbott, said in an earlier briefing that another 10 fatalities have been confirmed in neighboring counties. Abbott said that officials were still searching for 41 known missing persons across the state. 'We are seeing bodies recovered all over up and down,' Kerrville's city manager, Dalton Rice, told reporters at an earlier briefing on Sunday. Authorities said about 850 people had been rescued, with more than 400 people involved in the search and rescue operation. By Sunday morning, water levels had fallen to just a foot or two higher than before the flood. On Sunday afternoon, people in Kerrville received an emergency alert on their phone, reading: 'High confidence of river flooding at North Folks of river. Move to higher ground.' Further rain on Saturday and into Sunday morning hampered search efforts of crews using boats, helicopters and drones. Abbott promised responders would remain at the scene until every individual was recovered. He said he instructed responders to assume all missing persons were still alive. Read our full report here: Here are the latest headlines from Texas: Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, Associated Press cited local officials as saying. Abbott said additional stretches of heavy rain lasting into Tuesday could produce more dangerous flooding, especially in places already saturated. Relatives continued an anxious wait for news of 10 girls and one camp counsellor from the riverside Camp Mystic still unaccounted for after it was overwhelmed by flash flooding from the Guadalupe River, which rose 26ft (8 meters) in 45 minutes on Friday morning. Families were allowed to look around the camp from Sunday morning as nearby searches continued. The Texas Division of Emergency Management chief said on Sunday he was receiving unconfirmed reports of 'an additional wall of water' flowing down some of the creeks in the Guadalupe Rivershed as rain continued to fall on soil in the region already saturated from Friday's rains. 'We're evacuating parts of the river right now because we are worried about another wall of river coming down in those areas,' Nim Kidd said. Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made. Kerrville city manager Dalton Rice said there would be a full review of the emergency response. President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration on Sunday for Kerr county and said he would likely visit on Friday, calling what took place 'absolutely horrible'. Asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), he said that was something 'we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working'.