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Nevada is on fire. Is this the new normal · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Our weather conditions continue to be challenging, hot, dry, windy,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and no end in sight anytime soon.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: It was just really foggy. It just looks really bad.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: And it's starting to get really bad up there.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: We saw the fire come down the hill, so I
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: gathered up all the family and we took off.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Our priorities continue to be the same. Life safety first,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: property second.
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: This fire is extremely dangerous.
• 0:31
  Speaker 5: Close to these houses.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: It is ridiculous right now.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: It is very close and it is widespread.
• 0:44
  Speaker 6: You just heard it there, a wildfire threatening a city
• 0:47
  Speaker 6: and edging closer to homes. Flames continue to burn out
• 0:51
  Speaker 6: of control in the US state of Nevada, forcing more
• 0:53
  Speaker 6: than 90,000 people from their homes and causing schools to close.
• 0:58
  Speaker 6: The hawk blaze is burning on the outskirts of Reno,
• 1:01
  Speaker 6: a city of around 280,000 people in western Nevada, close
• 1:05
  Speaker 6: to the border with California. The wildfire is not contained.
• 1:09
  Speaker 6: It's already burned more than 50 square kilometres of land
• 1:13
  Speaker 6: and injured at least six people. But what else do
• 1:16
  Speaker 6: we know about how it started? Here's our North America correspondent,
• 1:19
  Speaker 6: Shai McAleel.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Well, the fire was first reported on Saturday and it
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: was reported near the Hawk Meadow Trail.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: In Washoe County. And this is why it's called the
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Hawk Fire.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Now, officials say that it was caused by human activity,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: although how exactly that.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Is still under investigation.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: We know that it started as a brush fire and
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: then it moved with extraordinary speed and within hours it
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: really burned through more than 10,000 acres, and now it's
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: up to 15,000 acres. It's driven towards heavily populated area
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: on the outskirts of Reno. And this is really the
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: big concern, the speed by which it's moving, the unpredictability
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: of it and its proximity.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: To highly populated areas.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Now, strong winds have pushed the fire forward and then
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: extremely dry conditions have also meant that they've driven this
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: as fuel, which means that the land is really at
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: tinderbox for more fires. And this is what firefighters have
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: been up against. They've been up against the weather that's
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: been working against them. And this is why people have
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: been warned that this fire is not contained at the
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: moment and also not predictable.
• 2:31
  Speaker 6: Tens of thousands of people have been told to evacuate
• 2:34
  Speaker 6: from an area close to Reno as the large wildfire
• 2:36
  Speaker 6: reached the outskirts of the city. Let's hear from some
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: of those affected.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: It was pretty tough. It was horrible.
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: Trying to get up here, trying to go to the house, you.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Know, just trying to get stuff for me and the kids.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: I'm still scared to death.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: It's like, you don't know if the winds are going
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: to shift and it's going to get worse, you know,
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: so you're just kind of, I got all my stuff
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: in my car, in his car, so it's just like,
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: ready to go if we need to go.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: It came super fast.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Within 20 minutes, we were told we got the alarm
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: to go.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: Ahead and get out of there.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: So we saw the fire come down the hill. So
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: I gathered up all the family and we took off.
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: Well, back to Sharma now with more on how the
• 3:19
  Speaker 6: evacuations are going.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Tens of thousands of residents have been affected by this.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: We have 42,000 already being told that they had to evacuate.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Immediately, some with just a few minutes to get ready
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: to leave.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: And they really could just grab whatever they could because
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: essentially they're trying to outrun the inferno and get to
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: evacuation centers. 45,000 have been put on notice to be
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: ready to move when they are told to do so.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Patients have also been moved from a couple of medical centers.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Schools are closed. Many roads are closed as well.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: And we've heard from the Reno police chief, Corey Salfarino,
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: who urged people to be prepared and to leave as
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: soon as they're being told to do so.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: We really want you to prioritize what those evacuation orders mean.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: It means not waiting until the evacuation order comes out.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Make sure you have your important documents, your medication, your kids,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: your rally plan of where you're going to reunify after this,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and plan on being out for a.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Couple of days.
• 4:21
  Speaker 6: Well, local reporter Lucia Starbuck from KUNR Public Radio in
• 4:24
  Speaker 6: Nevada describes the impact the fire is having on residents
• 4:28
  Speaker 6: and authorities.
• 4:29
  Speaker 7: The governor declared a state of emergency, so that means
• 4:31
  Speaker 7: the state's National Guard is helping attack it from aircraft,
• 4:34
  Speaker 7: helping police help people evacuate. There was about 800 firefighting
• 4:39
  Speaker 7: personnel on it today. Because that fire is burning on
• 4:42
  Speaker 7: this large hill, kind of just about in town almost,
• 4:46
  Speaker 7: there are neighborhoods at the bottom of each side of
• 4:48
  Speaker 7: the hill, so people have gone to the evacuation site.
• 4:51
  Speaker 7: We know that the casino hotels filled up really quickly.
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  Speaker 7: There was road closure, so some people are being diverted
• 4:57
  Speaker 7: over to the state over in California. So it's kind
• 4:59
  Speaker 7: of been this mad dash, you know, really heavy traffic
• 5:02
  Speaker 7: of people trying to leave the area. There were some
• 5:04
  Speaker 7: pretty horrifying videos that people posted while driving and the
• 5:08
  Speaker 7: flames getting really close to a major highway.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: And it did ultimately skip that highway.
• 5:12
  Speaker 6: And it's not the first time this summer that we
• 5:15
  Speaker 6: have seen wildfires threatening major cities. In July, there were
• 5:18
  Speaker 6: fires near Bordeaux in France. And here in England, homes
• 5:22
  Speaker 6: were destroyed by a wildfire in Starbridge just a couple
• 5:24
  Speaker 6: of weeks ago. So why does it feel like more
• 5:27
  Speaker 6: communities are are finding themselves in the path of these fires.
• 5:31
  Speaker 6: Here's Matt Taylor from our weather team.
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: Part of the reason we might be seeing wildfires closer
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: and more regularly close to cities is due to the
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: size of them. We've seen in the US, studies have
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: shown that frequency of wildfires hasn't increased much, but the
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: size of area burned has. And as those wildfires get
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: bigger in size, the great likelihood is they are going
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: to get closer to populated areas. And so around the
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: outskirts of cities, as wildfires close in, you get more
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: prone to seeing those wildfires arrive.
• 6:02
  Speaker 6: Well, Nevada is a state at high risk from large
• 6:05
  Speaker 6: wildfires because of its dry climate and abundance of invasive grasses.
• 6:09
  Speaker 6: Authorities in Reno say this fire was caused by human activity.
• 6:12
  Speaker 6: But what role does climate change play in the conditions
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: that allow fires like this to take hold and then spread?
• 6:19
  Speaker 6: Here's Matt Taylor again.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: Climate change isn't causing wildfires. In fact, over 80% of
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: wildfires in the United States are caused by people. But
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: human-induced climate change is what's making fire conditions ripe for
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: those fires to occur. So we're seeing longer-lasting, more extreme droughts.
• 6:38
  Speaker 5: And that, of course, dries out the ground and makes
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: the vegetation more prone to catching light and spreading more rapidly.
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: Well, this current fire is in Reno, in Nevada, but
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: extremely close to the border with California. So how concerned
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: are neighbouring states and how widespread is the wildfire threat
• 6:55
  Speaker 6: across the region? Back to our Los Angeles correspondent, Shyma Khalil.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Well, there's a great deal of concern from neighboring states,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: especially here in California. Reno is really on the fault
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: lines between Nevada and California. So California is watching this
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: and monitoring the Hawk Fire fairly closely. I think across
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: the American West, there is a bigger story of many,
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: many wildfires that are happening, some of them not very controlled.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: We've seen Washington state, for example, in the last few
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: weeks suffering.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: A from wildfires.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: In Nevada itself, this is the latest one in three
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: fires that are happening in the state. And I think
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: there's a great deal of concern among neighboring states about
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: how fast this can go, the resources that they have
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: to contain it. But again, It's also about the effect
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: on populations. If this is happening in vast areas of.
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  Speaker 2: Forest, that's one thing.
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  Speaker 3: If it's getting close to residential areas, remember, it's also
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: back to school. So it's going to affect schools. It's
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: going to affect universities. So officials are saying that they're
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: watching this quite closely to see what kind of resources
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: that they need, to see what precautions that can be
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: put in place.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: And remember, again, the fire in Nevada is.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: is not contained, which means the concern about it travelling
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: far and fast is still very much into the minds
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: of officials and, of course, members of the community.
• 8:23
  Speaker 6: And that's all you need to know about the wildfire
• 8:25
  Speaker 6: in Reno.