Fire officials in northern California said Wednesday that 2,000 homes and 1,500 smaller structures were threatened by a blaze burning out of control east of Sacramento.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said that 2,500 firefighters were taking on the wildfire that has burned nearly 44 square miles of trees and brush and is just 5 percent contained.
'It's been an explosive couple of days,' CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant told the Associated Press. Most of the threatened homes are located in Pollock Pines, approximately 50 miles east of California's capital.
'We are faced with a large and dangerous fire,' Laurence Crabtree, a U.S. Forest Service supervisor for the Eldorado National Forest, told the Sacramento Bee. 'We have had significant losses of public timber land, private timberland and watershed.'
California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency late Wednesday, freeing up funds for the fire near Sacramento, as well as another conflagration that destroyed or damaged 200 homes in the Oregon border town of Weed. Brown had also secured federal grants to fight each of the fires.
In Weed, teams of firefighters went house-to-house on Wednesday to pin down damage done by the fire. The latest estimated of homes burned is a marked increase from the initial estimate that a total of 150 structures had been destroyed or damaged in the blaze that began Monday and rapidly swept across the town. Four firefighters lost their homes.
Two churches, a community center and the library also burned to the ground, while an elementary school and the city's last wood-products mill were damaged by flames that had been pushed by 40 mph winds.
On Wednesday, firefighters braced for more wind as they battled the 375-acre fire, and insurance companies worked to find places to live for the people who lost their homes.
The cause of the blaze was under investigation. It was 60 percent contained.
Burned neighborhoods remained off-limits, but people have been finding ways in since the fire started.
The Rev. Bill Hofer, pastor of Weed Berean Church, said power was back on in his home, which was still standing on the edge of the devastation zone, and he was planning to return Wednesday night -- despite the evacuation order -- to deter vandalism.
'The more people home with the lights on, the better,' he said.
At the Roseburg Forest Products veneer mill, workers looked for structural damage to the main manufacturing facility. A maintenance shed was reduced to twisted sheet-metal.
'We were in the middle of its path,' said Kellye Wise, vice president of human resources for the company based in Dillard, Oregon. He said employees also lost homes in the blaze.
The temporary closure of the mill came as another blow to a town still suffering from logging cutbacks in the 1990s intended to protect fish and wildlife, Siskiyou County Supervisor Michael Kobseff said.
With 170 workers, the mill is the second-largest employer in Weed, a blue-collar town of 3,000 people in the shadow of Mount Shasta. He said some residents are anxious to rebuild.
'Then there are others still pretty well devastated,' he said. 'But I think the community is just trying to pull together and get back on track.'
Near Yosemite National Park, a 320-acre fire that damaged or destroyed 71 structures, including 37 homes, around Oakhurst was 70 percent contained and all remaining evacuations were canceled.
More than 4,000 wildfires have burned in California this year.
bberitaa.blogspot.com contributed to this report.
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, September 18, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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