SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Californian fire protection authorities have announced that a possible full containment of the statewide wildfires, which have burned for 19 days in western California, is to be achieved Friday.
According to reports, the second deadliest of a series of destructive blazes were fully contained Thursday. Full containment means a fire for which control lines are set up so that it will no longer spread.
In 19 days, the Redwood Valley Fire has killed eight people in Mendocino County, about more than 200 km north of San Francisco, and burned through an estimated 36,523 acres. However, it is now 100 percent contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal FIRE) announced on Thursday.
The fire authority said more than 3,000 firefighters currently remain on the frontlines of seven active wildfires, including those still smoldering in the North Bay, and they continue to extinguish hot spots and perform fire suppression repair work.
The Redwood Valley Fire has been the latest deadly Northern California wildfire to be contained since multiple blazes broke out during a windstorm on Oct. 8, killing at least 42, destroying 8,700 structures including homes and business facilities, and prompting about 100,000 people to evacuate.
The Cascade Fire in Yuba County, about 200 km south of San Francisco, where four people were killed, was the first fire to reach full containment on Oct. 18.
The worst fatalities occurred in Sonoma County, a historic city in northern California at the heart of the renowned Sonoma Valley winemaking region, where 23 people died from the most destructive fires in the history of Californian.
