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Apocalyptic images from Greenville: Houses, cars and power poles were destroyed by the flames
Photo: Noah Berger / AP
For weeks, emergency services in the west of the USA have been trying to bring the widespread forest fires under control.
The fight against the "Dixie Fire" in northern California, which has been blazing for three weeks, is particularly difficult.
The fire has already burned more than 1200 square kilometers.
Now the 800-inhabitant town of Greenville has fallen victim to the flames.
Images by an AFP photographer show on Thursday night (local time) lamp posts bent by the heat of the flames and houses burned down to the basic structures.
The US authorities had previously urged residents of Greenville and other localities in dramatic appeals to flee the flames.
"If you are still in the Greenville area, you are in imminent danger and must now leave the area," the authorities appealed on Wednesday.
"Rescue workers may not be able to help you if you stay." A little later, the fire reached the town of 800 people and set the houses up in flames.
"I would say most of downtown Greenville has been completely destroyed," wrote Stuart Palley, a forest fire photographer, on Twitter.
"My heart weeps for this beautiful little town." Other photographers apparently publish a video of a drive through the large, burned-down town on Twitter after the flames had passed through.
Other places were also acutely threatened by the flames.
"If you're still there, you should head east immediately," the Pluma sheriff's office wrote on the Twitter online service.
The so-called Dixie Fire broke out in the forests of northern California in mid-July.
Thousands of firefighters are fighting against the flames, which have increased so much that they are now creating their own microclimate and thus further fueling themselves.
The cause of the "Dixie Fire" is apparently an overturned power pole
This year, the California wildfires occur unusually early due to a multi-year drought, gusty winds, and hot early summer.
Experts see a connection to climate change.
So far, the fires have destroyed three times more vegetation than at the same time in 2020 - the previous sad record year for forest fires in California.
The cause of the "Dixie Fire" is an overturned power pole.
The operator of the line, the US energy supplier Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), had already been held responsible for the so-called "Camp Fire" in California in 2018.
At that time, defective power lines and inadequate protective measures triggered the fire in which 86 people were killed.
fek / AFP / AP