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Fire engineer dies fighting California's growing Thomas Fire

CNN 1h ago

Firefighter Dies in California Wildfire, Now The 4th Largest In The State's History

NPR 49m ago

Fire engineer dies fighting California's growing Thomas Fire

By Melissa Gray, CNN

Updated 4:47 PM ET, Thu December 14, 2017

The Thomas Fire, shown in pink, is burning between Santa Barbara and Ventura, California.

Story highlights

• A firefighter is killed in Ventura County
• The Thomas Fire threatens Santa Barbara and nearby communities

(CNN)A firefighter was killed in southern California's massive Thomas Fire on Thursday. The blaze has grown rapidly, fueled by gusty Santa Ana winds, dry conditions and single-digit humidity.

The man, who hasn't been identified, was from a firefighting unit in San Diego. He drove a fire engine and was killed on the east flank of the Thomas Fire, said Lynne Tolmachoff, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CalFire. He was with a strike team of two or three other crew members and was pronounced dead on scene, she said.

The man's death was the first fatality of a firefighter in the recent string of fires burning in southern California. While most of the wildfires are at or near containment, the Thomas Fire was 30% contained Thursday, covering 242,500 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and was expected to grow.

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"The winds will be kicking up quickly today and the offshore winds will once again bring the relative humidity critically low," CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said. "This will make the situation much tougher on the over 8,000 fire personnel fighting this fire."

"We could certainly see that 30% containment number go down as the fire responds to the stronger Santa Ana winds than what we have seen the past couple of days," he said.

Communities under threat

One of six major wildfires burning in Southern California, the Thomas Fire is already the fourth largest in California history, CalFire said. Nearly 1,000 fire engines and 27 helicopters are involved in battling the Thomas Fire alone, the agency said.

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There has been one other death connected to the Thomas Fire: a woman who was killed in a car crash while evacuating last week. Tolmachoff said CalFire considers her death to be fire-related.

Winds in Southern California were fierce Thursday morning, with gusts stronger than 60 mph in the Los Angeles mountains and more typical gusts of 35 to 50 mph in the valleys and coastal areas.

Fire threatened the communities of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Summerland and Montecito, according to CalFire. Crews were working to build fire lines north of those areas.

The Thomas fire broke out December 4 in Ojai, northwest of Los Angeles. Aided by the strong Santa Ana winds, it quickly spread to the city of Ventura, according to the federal InciWeb fire information website.

At least 95,000 residents have been evacuated in Southern California, CalFire said.

More than 1,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed in the Thomas Fire, and another 18,000 structures are threatened, CalFire said. The cause is under investigation.

CNN's Cheri Mossburg and Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.