Authorities in California said Thursday that a firefighter died during the response to the Thomas Fire, a massive blaze that has grown to become the fourth-biggest in the state's history.
"I am very saddened to report that a firefighter fatality has occurred on the Thomas Incident," Ken Pimlott, the director of Cal Fire, said in a statement.
Few details were immediately available about what happened, and officials did not release the firefighter's name. Scott McLean, a spokesman for Cal Fire, said he was an engineer with Cal Fire's San Diego unit. The firefighter, who died Thursday morning, would have been in charge of the fire engine and the engine crew, McLean said.
"We are continuing to get further verified facts and make sure that all the family has been notified as well," McLean said in a telephone interview.
The firefighter's death on Thursday came as the Thomas Fire burned northwest of Los Angeles for an 11th day. The fire roaring through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties had burned across nearly 380 square miles by Thursday, making it the fourth-largest California wildfire on record. Officials said it had been 30 percent contained.
The Thomas Fire has been by far the largest of the recent blazes ravaging parts of Southern California, fires that have destroyed more than 1,000 buildings - most of them single-family homes - and are threatening thousands of others.
While these fires have forced scores from their homes and burned wide swaths of the region, the firefighter's death Thursday is just the second fatality officials have blamed on these blazes.
Last week, authorities said a 70-year-old woman was killed by "blunt force injuries with terminal smoke inhalation and thermal injuries" during the Thomas Fire evacuation.
As homes have been burned to the ground and neighborhoods clouded with ash, officials warn that the danger had not yet passed. Red-flag warnings of heightened fire risk remained in effect through Friday morning, and it is likely they will be extended or reissued.
The region faces challenging conditions because gusting wind could combine with low humidity to lead to still-dangerous fire behavior, while a lack of rain could fuel the fires' growth.
Some of the other fires that erupted and endangered people in the region have been contained, officials said.
The Lilac Fire in San Diego County, which grew quickly last week to more than 4,100 acres, was 97 percent contained on Thursday, while the Rye Fire in Los Angeles County, which had expanded to 6,000 acres, was 100 percent contained a day earlier.
The causes of some of these fires remain under investigation. Authorities this week said the relatively small Skirball Fire, which destroyed a half-dozen homes in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles last week, was sparked by a cooking fire at a homeless encampment. The causes of other blazes are still being explored.
The Thomas Fire, meanwhile, has only grown, and officials said it burned across hundreds of homes and commercial buildings. Some areas remained evacuated, and officials warned of "hazardous conditions" in those places. In an incident update Thursday, officials described fighting the fire along its western and southeastern portions.
Authorities said they expected the fire to be contained by Jan. 7, a little more than a month after it first erupted on Dec. 4.
Sports on 12/15/2017