(task) Crews in California Fight to Contain 21 Wildfires - The New York Times

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extreme heat, drought, wildfires

> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/us/california-wildfires-rocky-fire.html?_r=0 <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/us/california-wildfires-rocky-fire.html?_r=0>
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> Crews in California Fight to Contain 21 Wildfires
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> Continue reading the main story
> National Guard drops water on the wildfire in Lake County, California over the weekend. Video by Storyful Editor
> National Guard forces dropped water along the edges of a raging wildfire over the weekend as more than 2,000 firefighters in Northern California tried to contain a blaze that has already scorched 54,000 acres.
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> The wildfire, nicknamed the Rocky Fire, started on July 29. It is the largest in the drought-parched state, where more than 9,000 firefighters are struggling to contain it and 20 other active wildfires, some caused by lightning strikes, according to a statewide summary published on Sunday. <http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/communications_statewidefiresummary.php>
> The Rocky Fire has now spread to three counties — Lake, Yolo and Colusa — and prompted the mandatory evacuation of about 12,000 people. It has so far damaged or destroyed dozens of buildings and residences. Part of Highway 20 and Highway 16 were closed.
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> The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said that as of late Sunday night, <http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=1161>only 5 percent of the burning Rocky Fire acreage in the north was contained. More than 6,000 structures are threatened by the wildfire, which the authorities estimated could not be fully contained until Aug. 10.
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> Continue reading the main story
> Continue reading the main story
> Continue reading the main story
> The fires in California are taking place against the backdrop of another summer of record-breaking drought and heat <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/us/dry-days-in-west-bring-ferocious-start-to-fire-season.html> in the West.
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> Wildfires have raged from Southern California, where a blaze burned more than 30,000 acres of national forest east of Los Angeles, to Montana, where a fire in Glacier National Park recently forced tourists to flee hotels, campgrounds and vehicles.
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> Last week, a firefighter, David Ruhl, 38, a married father of two from Rapid City, S.D., died on Thursday while on assignment in another of the state’s wildfires in the Modoc National Forest near the border with Oregon.
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> Images of the Rocky Fire were shared online as it spread, including this footage from Clearlake.
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> Weekend fire footage from Clearlake, California. Video by redneck6979