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Friday, November 9, 2018

One of the California wildfires grew so fast it burned the equivalent of a football field every second

The fires are being fed by intense winds, low humidity and very dry vegetation.
Much of California has seen less than 5% of its normal rainfall over the last month.
Altogether, the three fires have burned an area almost three times the size of Manhattan.
Here are some other startling facts about the fires:
The Camp Fire, which is burning in Butte County in Northern California, charred 20,000 acres in less than 14 hours Thursday. By itself, the Camp Fire has burned an area larger than Manhattan.
In its first three hours Thursday, it grew by 5,000 acres, according to Cal Fire. This means the fire increased an average of more than one football field every 3 seconds during that period.
The Camp Fire's most significant growth period happened early Thursday afternoon, when it grew 10,000 acres in about 90 minutes -- more than one football field every second during that time.

WOOLSEY AND HILL FIRES

The Woolsey Fire, which is threatening parts of Ventura and Los Angeles counties, grew to 8,000 acres in about 13 hours from Thursday afternoon into early Friday morning.
In a 90-minute period Friday morning, the Woolsey fire doubled in size from 4,000 acres to 8,000 acres. That's 44 acres a minute, or about a football field every two seconds.
The Woolsey Fire is one of two blazes burning just miles from the site of Wednesday night's shooting massacre in Thousand Oaks. This one is just to the east of that city, part of which was evacuated.
The other fire in that area is the Hill Fire, which torched 10,000 acres in six hours on Thursday. Just 12 minutes after it started Thursday afternoon, the flames spread across US 101, leaving several drivers temporarily stranded. The highway is expected to remain closed Friday morning, Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said.

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