Officials say a wildfire in central California has destroyed 12 homes and threatens 150 more. Meanwhile, another blaze in northern California has destroyed at least four homes and forced thousands of people in two towns to flee on Sunday as flames jumped a road and moved into populated areas.
Cal Fire spokesman Bennet Milloy says spot fires caused the day-old fire near central California’s Nacimiento Lake, about 290 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles, to grow from five to 15 square kilometres on Sunday.
The blaze shifted north toward the lake, prompting authorities to evacuate residents by boat.
Milloy said the fire was chewing through bone-dry brush and oak trees weakened by California’s years-long drought.
The fire is 10 per cent contained.
Crews respond to a blaze near Nacimiento Lake in northern San Luis Obispo County on Saturday, Aug. 13, in Paso Robles, Calif. The fire had tripled in size by Sunday. (Laura Dickinson /The Tribune via Associated Press)
A separate blaze reached Main Street in Lower Lake, a town of about 1,200, and burned the post office, a winery, a Habitat for Humanity office and several businesses and restaurants as black smoke loomed over the four-block strip.
Staff at a hospital in Clearlake, a neighbouring town of about 15,000, rushed to transfer 16 patients to another hospital 40 kilometres away while firefighters carried goats and other animals to safety as homes burned around them.
A firefighter rescues a goat from a burning house as flames envelope a property off of Bonham Road near Lower Lake, Calif., on Sunday. Flames continue to burn out of control in the area. (Josh Edelson/Associated Press)
Officials confirmed four homes were destroyed, although eyewitnesses could see many more.
The fire broke out Saturday afternoon and grew to some eight square kilometres as firefighters struggled to get a handle on the largely out-of-control blaze amid hot, windy conditions.
The fire was creating its own weather pattern and shifted northward into Lower Lake in the afternoon, said Suzie Blankenship, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
“As it grows, the fire is pushing heat in front of it and it gets critically dry,” Cal Fire spokeswoman Suzie Blankenship said.
Residents watch as a wildfire burns near their homes off Morgan Valley Road in Lower Lake, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016. It is one of two wildfires wreaking havoc in the state. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat via Associated Press)
The fire was throwing embers and spreading rapidly because of parched conditions brought on by the state’s historic drought, officials said. Large, explosive fires have torn through dried-out or hard-to-reach areas across California this summer, including a stubborn blaze near the picturesque Big Sur coastline that has burned 293 square kilometres since late July and destroyed nearly 60 homes.
Region still recovering from last year’s blaze
Lower Lake was evacuated in a devastating wildfire last year. That blaze killed four people and destroyed more than 1,300 homes. It was considered California’s third-most-destructive wildfire after ravaging most of rural Lake County and parts of Napa County about 90 miles north of San Francisco. A report issued this week concluded that faulty wiring in a hot tub ignited the 310-square-kilometre fire.
Ironically, the Habitat for Humanity office in Lower Lake was working to raise money to help rebuild homes destroyed by last year’s fire.
Lt. Doug Pittman, a Marin County sheriff’s spokesman who was working on behalf of Cal Fire, said residents fled their homes very quickly this weekend.
“They’ve seen it before,” Pittman told the San Francisco Chronicle.
In Southern California, forecasters warned of high fire danger due to a heat wave and gusty winds. Temperatures reached triple digits in numerous places, stoking an increased risk of wildfires across the mountains of Ventura and Los Angeles counties through at least Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.