Washington-SANA
The US authorities announced that the fires in California this year, a large part of which are still raging, have destroyed more than eight thousand square kilometers.
"This is the first time in 33 years that fires exceed an area of two million acres / eight thousand square kilometers," Agence France-Presse quoted fire brigade spokeswoman Lynn Tolmachov as saying, adding, "This is definitely a record ... and we are still far from the end of the fire season."
According to firefighting teams, more than 14,100 soldiers were fighting yesterday afternoon to extinguish 24 forest fires raging across the state.
And at least seven people have been killed this year as a result of fires in the state, while about 3,800 buildings were damaged or destroyed, according to the same source.
The authorities ordered residents of many areas in the south of the state to evacuate their homes and take cover from the fire, while military helicopters evacuated more than 200 people from their homes in the north of the state to save them from a fire that broke out near the city of Fresno and is spreading rapidly.