Californians flee two fast-moving wildfires
ANGELS CAMP, Calif. – Thousands of people rushed to escape a massive wildfire charging across the tinder-dry Sierra Nevada foothills and another out-of-control fire that broke out in northern California on Saturday, sending four firefighters to the hospital with second-degree burns.
The fire began in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco, and grew to about 15 square miles in just a few hours, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
The injured firefighters, all members of a helicopter crew, were airlifted to a hospital burn unit, where they were listed in stable condition, department spokesman Daniel Berlant said.
The fire forced the evacuation of two towns as well as residents along a 35-mile stretch of State Route 29.
To the east, a blood-red sun pushed through a choking fog of smoke and ash that turned California’s grassy, tree-studded Gold Country an eerie white. Away from the burned-out cars and smoldering remains of homes, Annette Stout and other residents who fled the flames rested at evacuation centers.
Stout was ordered from her house Friday afternoon, and for the first time since her husband’s death in March, she drove their recreational vehicle to safety in Angels Camp, a quaint town made famous by Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Tale of the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”
“I grabbed my cats, their carriers, important papers, my husband death’s certificate and his ashes,” said Stout, who lives in the community of Hathaway Pines.
The blaze ignited about 70 miles southeast of Sacramento on Wednesday and exploded to more than 101 square miles amid triple-digit temperatures and land parched from several years of drought. Crews increased containment to 15 percent despite a thick layer of smoke that kept air tankers and helicopters from flying Saturday.
Firefighters on the ground were hampered by rugged, hard-to-access terrain. With very little wind, the fires were driven by bone-dry brush and timber.
“We’re in a Catch-22, because without wind the smoke won’t lift,” said Mike Mohler, a Cal Fire spokesman. “We needed the aircraft today.”
The fire destroyed 86 homes, 51 outbuildings and was threatening about 6,400 more.