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Wade (U.S.), The Associated Press, Sept. 3 (AP) — A wildfire raging in wildfire in rural northern California after at least two people were injured and thousands were forced from their homes, fire officials said Saturday. It swept through a neighborhood, destroying about 100 homes and other buildings. .
Shortly before 1 p.m. Friday, the Mill Fire started north of the city of Weed, 250 miles (402 kilometers) north of San Francisco. The fire broke into the vicinity of Lincoln Heights, destroying a large number of homes and forcing residents to flee for their lives.
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The pair were taken to Mount Shasta Charity Medical Center. One is in stable condition and the other was transferred to UC Davis Medical Center, which has a burn unit.
Cal Fire Siskiyou Division Chief Phil Anzo said crews worked day and night to protect buildings in Weed and the eastern subdivision known as the Carrick Addition.
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“There was a lot of risk with that mill fire,” he said. “There’s a lot of community there, a lot of houses.”
Weather conditions improved overnight and firefighters were able to contain 20 per cent, but another large volcanic fire, which erupted northwest of Weed on Friday, grew significantly. The fire reportedly caused no casualties or damage to buildings. The cause of both fires is under investigation.
Anzo estimates that about 100 houses and other structures were killed in the mill fire. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Siskiyou County and said it had received federal funding “to help ensure critical resources are available to fight the fires.”
California is in the midst of a deep drought as it enters its traditional worst fire season. Climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the past three years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive, scientists say.
For the past five years, California has experienced the largest and most destructive fires in state history. There have been three fires in Weed since 2014.
The most recent fire occurred at or near Roseburg Forest Products, which manufactures wood products. An evacuation order for 7,500 people went into effect quickly.
Yvasha Hilliard said she was at her Lincoln Heights home when she heard “a loud bang” and ran outside to see a neighbour’s house on fire.
“It was like fire from the sky,” she said. “It was horrible.”
Hilliard said her home was also on fire. “We lost everything,” she said.
Anne Peterson said she was sitting on her porch when “all the smoke was rolling towards us”.
Soon, her home and about a dozen others were on fire. She said members of her church helped her and her son evacuate, and they remained motionless. The smoke and flame scenes looked like “the world is coming to an end”, she said.
Dr. Deborah Higer, medical director of the Shasta View Care Center, said all 23 patients at the facility had to be evacuated. Twenty people went to the local hospital and three stayed in her own home, where a hospital bed was set up.
A large vacant building on the edge of the company’s property burned down, said Rebecca Taylor, communications director for Roseburg, based in Springfield, Oregon. All employees were evacuated and no injuries were reported, she said.
Around 9,000 customers were reported to be outages that affected about 9,000 customers around the time the fires began, and thousands remained without power late at night due to the wildfires, according to power company PacifiCorp.
This is the third major wildfire in as many days in California, which is sweltering in a heatwave that is expected to exceed 100 degrees in many areas by Labor Day.
Thousands were also ordered to flee a fire in Castaic, north of Los Angeles, on Wednesday, and a fire in eastern San Diego County, near the Mexican border, where two people were badly burned and several homes were destroyed. All evacuation orders were lifted on Friday.
A fire at a mill about an hour’s drive from the Oregon line is burning. It is only about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of where the McKinney Fire, the state’s deadliest fire of the year, erupted in late July. It killed four people and destroyed dozens of homes. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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