26 April 2024,   21:01
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California declares state of emergency as mass power outages and evacuations continue

California declared a statewide emergency as wind-whipped wildfires in the north and south of the state gobbled up land, destroyed homes and forced almost 200,000 people to flee.
In Northern California"s wine country outside San Francisco, the Kincade Fire has grown to about 50,000 acres and is 10% contained. That"s up from 30,000 acres reported earlier in the day. The governor estimated 180,000 people evacuated because of the fire, which CalFire says destroyed 79 structures.
Meanwhile, Californians outside the fire zones find themselves in the dark -- literally.
About 1 million Pacific Gas and Electric customers lost power -- 965,000 because of the Public Safety Power Shutoff, and an additional 100,000 for other reasons, said Mark Quinlan, PG&E incident commander.

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