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California’s largest fire burns homes as blazes scorch West

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
`California's largest fire burns homes as blazes scorch West (apnews.com)

INDIAN FALLS, Calif. (AP) — California’s largest wildfire merged with a smaller blaze and destroyed homes in remote areas with limited access for firefighters, as numerous other fires gained strength and threatened property across the U.S. West.

The massive Dixie Fire, which started July 14, had already leveled over a dozen houses and other structures when it combined with the Fly Fire and tore through the tiny Northern California community of Indian Falls after dark Saturday.

An updated damage estimate was not available Sunday, though fire officials said the blaze had charred nearly 298 square miles acres (772 square kilometers) of timber and brush in Plumas and Butte counties. It was 21% contained.

Firefighters carrying hand tools were forced to hike through rugged terrain where engines can’t go, said Rick Carhart, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The nation's largest fire is currently in Oregon.

“It has been burning in extremely steep canyons, some places where it is almost impossible for human beings to set foot on the ground to get in there,” he said. “It’s going to be a long haul.”

Still, crews made progress Saturday by proactively setting fires to rob the main blaze of fuels, Carhart said.

The fire prompted evacuation orders in several small mountain communities and along the west shore of Lake Almanor, a popular resort area.

Firefighters also reported progress against the nation’s largest wildfire, the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon, containing 46% of the blaze that had consumed nearly 640 square miles (1,657 square kilometers).

More than 2,200 firefighters battled the blaze, focusing Sunday on constructing containment lines at the north and eastern edges in dense timber. Crews could get a break from rain and higher humidity predicted for this week, said Marcus Kauffman, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry.

The lightning-caused fire has burned 67 homes, mainly cabins, and at least 2,000 houses were under evacuation orders.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown told CNN’s “State of the Union” that it’s imperative federal and state authorities invest in mitigation such as tree thinning and preventive burns to limit the number of similar massive blazes. But she conceded that “the harsh reality is that we’re going to see more of these wildfires.”

“They’re hotter, they’re more fierce, and obviously much more challenging to tackle. And they are a sign of the changing climate impacts,” Brown said Sunday.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for four northern counties because of wildfires that he said were causing “conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property.” The proclamation opened the way for more state support.

Such conditions are often from a combination of unusual random, short-term and natural weather patterns heightened by long-term, human-caused climate change. Global warming has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years.

In southwest Montana, officials were focusing on structure protection for three area fires amid weather forecasts of rising temperatures, low humidity and westerly winds this week, factors that could produce explosive growth.

About 475 firefighters were working the Alder Creek, Trail Creek and Christensen fires. In particular, crews were trying to protect about 200 homes and cabins and prevent the 44-square-mile (144-square-kilometer) Trail Creek blaze from reaching the Big Hole National Battlefield in Beaverhead County, fire spokesman Jason Nedlo said. The battlefield site, operated by the National Park Service, has been closed because of the fire threat.

Elsewhere in California, the 104-square-mile (269-square-kilometer) Tamarack fire south of Lake Tahoe continued to burn through timber and chaparral and threatened communities on both sides of the California-Nevada state line. The fire, sparked by lightning July 4 in Alpine County, has destroyed at least 10 buildings. It was 27% contained Sunday.

Heavy smoke from that blaze and the Dixie Fire lowered visibility and may at times ground aircraft providing support for fire crews. The air quality south of Lake Tahoe and across the state line into Nevada deteriorated to very unhealthy levels.

In north-central Washington, firefighters battled two blazes in Okanogan County that threatened hundreds of homes and again caused hazardous air quality conditions Saturday. And in northern Idaho, east of Spokane, Washington, a small fire near the Silverwood Theme Park prompted evacuations Friday evening at the park and in the surrounding area. The theme park was back open Saturday with the fire half contained.

Although hot weather with afternoon winds posed a continued threat of spreading blazes, weekend forecasts also called for a chance of scattered thunderstorms in California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and other states. However, forecasters said some could be dry thunderstorms that produce little rain but a lot of lightning, which can spark new blazes.

More than 85 large wildfires were burning around the country, most of them in Western states. They had burned over 1.4 million acres (2,135 square miles, or more than 553,000 hectares).

lg_fire_nifc_2021-07-25.png


Looks like a whole cluster of fire incidents in the Northwest.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
That's why some of the climatologists I've spoken with have said what we're seeing in much of the west is not drought; it's aridification.

Another phrase for that is, of course, CLIMATE CHANGE. And from what I've read it was correctly predicted based on the increasing CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Are ostrich heads going to come out of the ground now or will we see cooked ostrich?
 

Jose Fly

Fisker of men
Another phrase for that is, of course, CLIMATE CHANGE. And from what I've read it was correctly predicted based on the increasing CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Well yeah, that's what's driving it. The point was, we can't think of this as a drought.

Are ostrich heads going to come out of the ground now or will we see cooked ostrich?
At this point, the ones still denying global warming are those who are so deep in denial, they'll never accept it.
 

ADigitalArtist

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Our grandson lives in Hillsboro Oregon, not sure the distance from the fires.
Pretty far. The big one is a couple hours SouthEast of there. The closest one is an hour SE but it's tiny. There's about five fires going on right now, but just one super massive one down South-Central.
 

Aštra’el

Aštara, Blade of Aštoreth
It's going to keep happening until we more resemble deserts of Southern California and Mexico. Tragic loss.
Tragic indeed, those forests are beautiful.... but the Sonoran and Mojave deserts are my favorite places on earth, so at least there is an upside.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Tragic indeed, those forests are beautiful.... but the Sonoran and Mojave deserts are my favorite places on earth, so at least there is an upside.
I hope that people, zoning officials, & building code
officials learn more about how & where to build.
They needn't endure such loss. It also puts fire
workers in danger because of the need to rescue
people & buildings.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I hope that people, zoning officials, & building code
officials learn more about how & where to build.
They needn't endure such loss. It also puts fire
workers in danger because of the need to rescue
people & buildings.
Moths to a flame. Literally.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
I hope that people, zoning officials, & building code
officials learn more about how & where to build.
They needn't endure such loss. It also puts fire
workers in danger because of the need to rescue
people & buildings.

That would be nice. But the capacity of people to put their fingers in the fire, get surprised at the pain and then reinsert their fingers in the fire again expecting something different never ceases to amaze me.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
....But the capacity of people to put their fingers in the fire, get surprised at the pain and then reinsert their fingers in the fire again expecting something different never ceases to amaze me.
I think attachment to the land itself can override risk for some. Even if it's life and property. Again and again, over and over.
 

esmith

Veteran Member
Sort of like those homeowners who build and rebuild their homes on the beach in a hurricane zone.
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Dixie Fire Burns Through Historic Greenville, Calif. (msn.com)

AAMY4VT.img


A raging wildfire driven by strong winds tore through the small Northern California town of Greenville overnight, burning much of its historic center to the ground and leaving stretches of the community unrecognizable on Thursday.

“We lost Greenville tonight,” Representative Doug LaMalfa, who represents the area in Congress, said in a video posted to Facebook, adding that other towns in the region were also threatened by the blaze, known as the Dixie Fire.

The fire is the largest in California this year and the sixth-largest on record in the state, burning more than 322,000 acres, and was only 35 percent contained by Thursday morning. At least 45 structures have been burned since it started on July 14. Its cause remains under investigation, and there have been no reported fatalities.

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Fire officials estimated that 75 percent of the structures in Greenville had been lost to the fire, which crews continued to battle on Thursday.

“It took maybe 30 minutes before all of Greenville was literally flanked by fire,” said Ryan Schramel, who grew up in the town and now lives in nearby Taylorsville.

Mr. Schramel arrived in Greenville at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday to assist his father, a medical equipment provider, in helping an older resident who had not evacuated. The resident was able to get another a ride out of town, and Mr. Schramel watched as the fire quickly subsumed Greenville, including his own grandmother’s house.

“That’s my whole childhood,” Mr. Schramel said. “It was tragic to just watch the whole thing go up.”

With a population around 1,000 people about 150 miles north of Sacramento, Greenville was placed under a mandatory evacuation order on Monday. Wednesday night, amid worsening weather conditions, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office underscored the warning: “If you are still in the Greenville area, you are in imminent danger and you must leave now!!”

“A lot of people chose to stay in here,” said Jake Cagle, an operations section chief for California Incident Management, in a fire briefing late Wednesday. In another briefing Thursday morning, he said that when residents ignore evacuation orders, it makes it more difficult for crews to contain the fires.

“When our resources come in and they have to load up people in their vehicles, in their fire vehicles, and put them in a safe spot, that takes us away from fighting the fire,” said Mr. Cagle, adding that some firefighters had been threatened with firearms by landowners who refused to evacuate.

Photographs from news agencies and social media showed buildings along Main Street and Highway 89 in Greenville burned to the ground as heavy smoke clouded the skies. An Associated Press photographer who was in town said that historic buildings and dozens of homes had been wiped out.

“Main street is literally dead, destroyed on both sides,” said Michael Hambrick, a helicopter firefighter who lost his own house in the nearby mountain community of Indian Falls to the Dixie Fire last month.

“It’s all wind without quit, and this is pushing this thing everywhere,” said Mr. Hambrick. With the fire now spreading toward the towns of Chester and Westwood, he said he worried that they could meet the same fate as Greenville.

The small community of Crescent Mills was also threatened on Thursday. Ryan Kelly said he had stayed there hoping to defend his sister’s home, and during a phone interview, he described watching as helicopters dumped water over a nearby ridgeline to try to protect the tiny town.

“The fire is about to crest over the mountain, any minute now,” he said. Dozens of firefighters with chain saws had been at work trying to cut a fire line above the town’s cemetery the night before, he said, but with heavy brush and high winds, he said, the odds were not good.

“Worse case scenario, pretty much,” he said.

Mr. Kelly worked in hemp cultivation in the Sierra Valley, he said, but this year’s wildfires had claimed the farm. “My brother lost his home in Belden too,” he said. “Everyone I know lost their homes. Yesterday my buddy lost his home outside of Greenville. It’s just, everybody.”

The current fire season, spurred on by months of drought and blistering heat waves, has threatened dozens of communities across the West. As climate change exacerbates drought conditions, fires are spreading with a rare speed and scope.

“These are not the normal fires anymore,” Mr. Cagle, the section chief, said. “It’s just intense fire behavior, and it’s not what we’re used to.”

The Dixie Fire is one of 96 burning in the United States, including 11 California and 24 in Montana, according to federal wildfire data. The River Fire, which broke out on Wednesday about 40 miles northeast of Sacramento, has already burned 2,400 acres, forcing thousands of evacuations. As of Thursday morning, the fire was not yet contained and had destroyed 50 structures and damaged 30 more. There have been no fatalities reported.

The Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon is the largest so far this year in the country, having burned more than 400,000 acres. It was so intense at one point, it generated its own weather.

A red flag warning, indicating conditions are ripe for increased risk of fire danger, was in effect for areas around the Sacramento Valley and points farther north, including Plumas County, through Thursday, the National Weather Service said. Winds gusts up to 35 m.p.h. were also expected.

Firefighters had been working this week to protect buildings in Greenville, according to Cal Fire, and aircraft were also working to support ground efforts where visibility allowed.

Greenville is the largest town in Indian Valley, a verdant mountain valley with a cluster of small towns whose inhabitants once depended on timber from the surrounding mountains, and where many residents still rely on cattle ranching.

Since the Dixie Fire erupted, the sky in Indian Valley has intermittently been covered in smoke so thick that it conceals the silhouette of the mountains that ring the valley, residents said.

A Gold Rush town, Greenville still had many buildings that dated back to the 19th century, and its Main Street facades were reminiscent of old Westerns. Its isolation contributed to a feeling that it was lost to time, preserved by its remote location from many forces defining contemporary life.

Over the last decade, however, its inhabitants have struggled with the effects of the droughts that have devastated much of California and contributed to the dangerous conditions fueling wildfires.

Since late July, residents have contended with evacuation orders that shifted from day to day. Many in the area had chosen to stay, helping one another dig trenches, spray down homes and irrigate fields, while some had stored belongings in horse and cattle trailers, in case the fire came over the mountains.
 
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