Dozens of people trapped by a wildfire in northern California were evacuated by helicopter on Sunday, local authorities said.
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Military helicopters have so far evacuated 63 people from the Mammoth Pool Reservoir in the Sierra National Forest, about 70 km northeast of Fresno, Fresno firefighters said on Twitter.
Among them, two people suffer from serious injuries and ten others from moderate injuries, according to the same source.
“The devices are leaving to continue the rescue operations. The number of people who remain is unknown ”, added the firefighters.
The Madera County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook that some 150 people were trapped at the popular site, calling for the area to be avoided.
The California National Guard used Chinook helicopters for the evacuation operation, said General Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard bureau, tweeting a photo taken from the cockpit of a helicopter, showing him surrounded by the trees in flames.
The blaze erupted on steep and rugged terrain on Friday as California experiences another heat wave this weekend.
These temperatures conducive to forest fires come after more than 600,000 hectares of forest had already gone up in smoke in multiple fires, which had caused the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in mid-August.