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Santa Cruz Fire: A Natural Disaster
By admin | June 5, 2008
The Santa Cruz fire put firefighters at an extremely difficult challenge: more than 1000 acres have already been burnt or are on fire, and the natural catastrophe has now become a menace to the houses and shops in the vicinity of the Santa Cruz Mountain.
Fires in nature are always dangerous, due to their ability of spreading with high speed, especially if the weather gets windy. Wind and fire are the worst combination possible, and firefighters cannot do very much under these circumstances. They cannot go too deep into the flames, because there they have to face extremely high temperatures and lack of oxygen, and they are exposed to the danger of burning trees falling over them, or cutting their way of return.
In cases like the Santa Cruz fire, the best firefighting action is by air: huge quantities of water are dropped over the burning areas from special helicopters or planes. Sometimes, also sand is spread over the flames, hoping to put them down.
The latest news show that the fire has already spread over 2200 acres, and about 12 homes have been destroyed by the calamity.
Hopefully, Santa Cruz will escape the fire disaster without human losses.
Topics: Just news |