In Pics: California once again plagued by wildfires

Fanned by gusting winds, wildfires raged in densely populated Southern California for a fourth day on Thursday, with a new blaze north of San Diego exploding in size in just a few hours and dangerous conditions forecast until Sunday.

The blazes destroyed hundreds of houses and forced many Los Angeles-area schools to close. Flames hopscotched over highways and railroad tracks, and residents rushed to evacuate their homes with only minutes’ warning, some leaving behind holiday gifts. People feared for the safety of animals from cats to llamas.

This NASA Earth Observatory image obtained December 7, 2017 shows On December 5, 2017, what the Multi Spectral Imager (MSI) on the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite captured in the data for a false-color image of the burn scar in Ventura County, California. Active fires appear orange; the burn scar is brown. Unburned vegetation is green; developed areas are gray. The Sentinel-2 image is based on observations of visible, shortwave infrared, and near infrared light. The fires mainly affected a forested, hilly area north of Ventura, but flames have encroached into the northern edge of the city – AFP

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