Huge forest fire in California: More than 1000 firefighters in action

California is hit again by a huge forest fire.

It's the next environmental disaster for the US state in a very short space of time.

Santa Barbara - The western United States and Canada were hit by a series of forest fires for many weeks last summer.

Now more than 1000 firefighters in the US state of California are working against the fire.

According to the local authorities, the so-called Alisal Fire near Santa Barbara spread to more than 62 square kilometers by Wednesday evening (local time).

The flames broke out on Monday (October 11th) for an initially unknown cause.

Strong winds would have fanned them further.

The fire brigade was in action with fire-fighting aircraft.

The fire has so far been contained to five percent, it said.

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More than 1,000 firefighters are fighting the forest fire in California.

© Ringo HW Chiu / dpa

Huge forest fire in California: More than 1000 firefighters in action

A stretch of highway in California has been closed. The authorities also ordered evacuations. The flames threatened the homes of many in the Santa Barbara District. The fire was also dangerously close to the former vacation home of former US President Ronald Reagan, the

, citing a ranch manager.

It's the next environmental disaster to hit California in no time.

In early October, large amounts of oil leaked from a leaky pipeline off the coast in the south of the US state.

The consequences for animals and nature were sometimes dramatic.

According to the Coast Guard, at least 93,000 liters of oil have leaked.

The authorities named an amount of around 500,000 liters as the “worst scenario”.

List of rubric lists: © Ringo HW Chiu