Several wildfires affected Los Angeles and San Diego areas on Friday.
Despite thousands of firemen are trying to control the situation (some of them coming from the nearby States), the wildfires have already burnt more than 180.000 acres and 300 buildings, forcing nearly 200.000 people to evacuate. At the moment just the 20% of the fire has been put down and it's not expected to rain for the next 10 days. The firemen will probably be working even on Christmas day said Jerry Brown, the governon of California.
The highway 101 connecting Ventura to Santa Barbara has been termporarely blocked, while dozens of schools remained closed. According to the authorities, the rapid diffusion of the wildfires has been caused not only by the strong winds, but also by the drought which affects several southern counties from weeks.
Since the first fire broke out, the world's eyes have been pointed on California and satellites make no exception. e-GEOS emergency room is steadily monitoring the situation thanks to the high volume of data provided by Sentinel-2 (ESA) and Landsat 8 (USGS) in order to have a clear evaluation of the damages suffered by the territory. Mapping the phenomenon can significantly help the authorities to take effective actions aimed to both contain the fire and prevent further damages.
.jpg "Incendio California")
The image shows the extent of the devastation caused by the fire and where it is still burning.