Sandalwood Fire | |
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Date(s) |
|
Location | Riverside County, California |
Coordinates | 33°59′41″N117°03′47″W / 33.994661°N 117.063106°W |
Statistics [1] | |
Burned area | 1,011 acres (409 ha) |
Impacts | |
Deaths | 2 |
Non-fatal injuries | 3 |
Structures destroyed | 74 structures destroyed, 16 damaged |
Map | |
The Sandalwood Fire was a wildfire that burned in the city of Calimesa in Riverside County, California. The fire started on October 10, 2019 in the afternoon, killing two people [2] and destroying 74 structures. [3]
The fire, named after a street near where the fire started, ignited when a garbage truck dumped its smoldering load next to a canyon of dry scrub. [4]
Reported during a Santa Ana wind event that was anticipated for the area at around 1:58 pm Thursday, October 10, the Sandalwood fire broke out along Calimesa Boulevard and Sandalwood Drive immediately raced into nearby brush burning in a southwesterly direction due to the strong winds. [5] Within the first hour of the fire, the conflagration was already heavily impacting the Villa Calimesa mobile home park where most of the damage from the fire would occur. The fire continued to spread rapidly as was reportedly over by 4 pm that afternoon and also threatening the nearby railway, power grid, and a second mobile home park in the area. [5] Throughout the day, the fire would destroy most of the Villa Calimesa mobile home park and ultimately cause the death of two civilians in the area.
Six air tankers and eight helicopters assisted in the firefighting operation. [6]
Calimesa is a city in Riverside County, California, United States in the Greater Los Angeles area. The population was 7,879 at the 2010 census, up from 7,139 at the 2000 census. It is situated in the San Gorgonio Pass.
The Oakland firestorm of 1991 was a large suburban wildland–urban interface conflagration that occurred on the hillsides of northern Oakland, California, and southeastern Berkeley over the weekend of October 19–20, 1991, before being brought under full control on October 23. The official name of this incident by Cal Fire is the Tunnel Fire. It is also commonly referred to as the Oakland Hills firestorm or the East Bay Hills fire. The fire ultimately killed 25 people and injured 150 others. The 1,520 acres destroyed included 2,843 single-family dwellings and 437 apartment and condominium units. The economic loss from the fire was estimated at $1.5 billion.
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