CALIFORNIA, Sept 6: Both directions of a major highway connecting California and Oregon were closed and evacuations were ordered Wednesday when a fast-moving wildfire swept through a wilderness area.

The blaze in Shasta County was reported during the afternoon and within hours had charred nearly 8 square miles (about 21 square kilometers) of brush and timber in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of San Francisco.

The fire was human-caused, fire officials said. However, they didn’t indicate whether it was arson or an accident.

The fire shut down miles of Interstate 5 and there was no immediate word on when it would reopen. The blaze also delayed Amtrak’s Coast Starlight service between Sacramento and Oregon.

Footage posted by KRCR-TV of Redding showed roaring flames and plumes of dark smoke as some trucks and cars were left abandoned on the side of Interstate 5.

Several trucks were burned and would have to be removed before the road could reopen.

In a video, a passenger in a vehicle on the freeway screams: “Oh my God, I want to go!” as trees catch fire and flames race up a hillside next to the road.

The key interstate was closed from 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Redding to an area just south of Mount Shasta. The Delta Fire was not immediately burning near large towns but was threatening a number of structures in an area of campgrounds, recreational residences and cabins, forest spokeswoman Kerry Greene said.

It comes just weeks after a devastating fire destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and killed eight people in the same area. That blaze, the Carr Fire, was declared contained just last week.

Meanwhile, a forest fire in California’s eastern Sierra Nevada continued to grow and impacts on travel were increasing, officials said.

State Route 108 was closed from the Alpine-Mono county line to U.S. 395, which was already shut down in the mountainous region about 200 miles (320 kilometers) east of Sacramento, the California Department of Transportation said.

The U.S. 395 closure extended from the town of Bridgeport to just south of the community of Walker, Caltrans said.

The Boot Fire began Tuesday in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. Evacuation orders remained in place for the Bootleg, Chris Flat and Sonora Bridge campgrounds. Unspecified structures were threatened in the Burchum Flats area east of Walker Canyon. AP

CALIFORNIA, August 7: Twin Northern California blazes fueled by dry vegetation and hot, windy weather grew Monday to become the largest wildfire in state history, becoming the norm as climate change makes the fire season longer and more severe.

The two fires burning a few miles apart and known as the Mendocino Complex are being treated as one incident. It has scorched 443 square miles (1,148.4 square kilometers), fire officials said Monday.

The fires, north of San Francisco, have burned 75 homes and is only 30 percent contained.

The size of the fires surpasses a blaze last December in Southern California that burned 440.5 square miles (1,140.8 kilometers). It killed two people, including a firefighter, and destroyed more than 1,000 buildings before being fully contained on Jan. 12.

Hotter weather attributed to climate change is drying out vegetation, creating more intense fires that spread quickly from rural areas to city subdivisions, climate and fire experts say. But they also blame cities and towns that are expanding housing into previously undeveloped areas.

More than 14,000 firefighters are battling over a dozen major blazes throughout California, state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Scott McLean said.

“I can remember a couple of years ago when we saw 10 to 12,000 firefighters in the states of California, Oregon and Washington and never the 14,000 we see now,” he said.

Crews did make progress over the weekend against one of the two blazes in the Mendocino Complex with help from water-dropping aircraft, Cal Fire operations chief Charlie Blankenheim said in a video on Facebook.

But the other one is growing after spreading into the Mendocino National Forest.

The complex of fire has been less destructive to property than some of the other wildfires in the state because it is mostly raging in remote areas. But officials say the twin fires threaten 11,300 buildings and some new evacuations were ordered over the weekend as the flames spread.

A new fire erupted Monday in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, and prompted the evacuation of two canyons and some campgrounds as it expanded into the Cleveland National Forest. By nightfall, the fire had burned 4,000 acres (6 square miles or 16 square kilometers) of chaparral-covered hillsides and destroyed one building.

Farther north, crews gained ground against a deadly blaze that has destroyed more than 1,000 homes in and around Redding. It was nearly halfway contained, Cal Fire said.

The wildfire about 225 miles (360 kilometers) north of San Francisco started more than two weeks ago by sparks from the steel wheel of a towed-trailer’s flat tire. It killed two firefighters and four residents and displaced more than 38,000 people.

Officials began allowing some residents to return to their neighborhoods. But tens of thousands of others were still evacuated.

The fires in Northern California have created such a haze of smoke in the Central Valley that Sacramento County health officials advised residents to avoid outdoor activities for the entire week.

Another blaze that ignited last week has damaged a historic Northern California resort in the Stanislaus National Forest. The nearly century-old Dardanelle Resort has sustained massive structural damage, though the details were unclear, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported.

The rustic lodge 180 miles (290 kilometers) east of San Francisco is nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains and offers cabin and motel rentals along with RV sites, a store and restaurant.

The U.S. Forest Service reported that the fire crossed a highway Sunday evening, forcing crews to retreat from the fire’s edge.

The resort owners said in a Facebook post that “at this point it has been confirmed that there is ‘massive structural damage.’ We are heartbroken and struggling with this news.” AP

CALIFORNIA, August 2: A massive wildfire in Northern California has torched more than 1,000 homes in and around the city of Redding, authorities said Wednesday as some evacuees were allowed to return home and new blazes exploded in what has become an endless summer of flame in the Golden State.

“Whatever resources are needed, we’re putting them there,” Gov. Jerry Brown said at a news conference. “We’re being surprised. Every year is teaching the fire authorities new lessons. We’re in uncharted territory.”

Just a month into the budget year, the state has already spent more than one-quarter of its annual fire budget, at least $125 million, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Mike Mohler said.

Cal Fire said another 488 buildings, including barns and warehouses, have also been destroyed by the fire, which is now the sixth most destructive in California history.

The 121,000-acre Redding-area blaze, which started July 23, forced 38,000 people from their homes and killed six. It has scorched 189 square miles (490 square kilometers) and is 35 percent contained.

At least three new fires erupted Wednesday in the Sierra Nevada region, including a blaze in Placer County that had consumed 1 1/2 square miles (1,000 acres or 4 square kilometers) of land.

North of San Francisco, a fire threatened homes in an old ranching and farming area near Covelo. About 60 homes were ordered evacuated as the blaze erupted late Tuesday and winds whipped flames through brush, grass, oak, pine and fir near the Mendocino National Forest, officials said.

To the east, another blaze Tuesday night raged through grassy cattle lands near Yuba City, covering more than 1 1/2 square miles (4 square kilometers) in a few hours. The new fires erupted without warning and spread with shocking speed through forest and brush that have literally become tinder, said Scott McLean of CalFire.

“It just goes on and on,” McLean said.

“We had this rain at the beginning of the year and all that did was promote the growing of grass and brush,” McLean said. “It’s a Catch-22. It’s growing more product to catch on fire.”

He said the state really never left its drought status and several years of significant rainfall are needed to bring the state back. McLean also had a warning for people visiting rural and wilderness areas.

“Pay attention,” he said. “Don’t park the car on dry grass … no campfires, no flame. It doesn’t take anything to start a fire right now.”

The new fire near Covelo was only about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of where twin fires in Mendocino and Lake counties have burned an area three times the size of San Francisco, destroyed 14 homes and threatened 12,000 more.

The Lake County seat of Lakeport remained under evacuation orders and was a virtual ghost town, although people were allowed back home in several smaller communities as firefighters shored up containment lines. Containment grew overnight to 24 percent.

Jessyca Lytle fled a fast-moving wildfire in 2015 that spared her property but destroyed her mother’s memorabilia-filled Lake County home.

Lytle found herself listening to scanner traffic Tuesday and fire-proofing her mother’s new home as another wildfire advanced.

“Honestly, what I’m thinking right now is I just want this to end,” Lytle said, adding that she was “exhausted in every way possible — physically, emotionally, all of that.”

Paul Lew and his two boys, ages 13 and 16, evacuated Saturday from their Lakeport home.

“I told them to throw everything they care about in the back of the car,” said Lew, 45. “I grabbed computers, cellphones, papers. I just started bagging all my paperwork up, clothes, my guitars.”

Lew, who is divorced from Lytle, is camped out at the house in the nearby community of Cobb that she fled in 2015. He is watching over her chickens, sheep and other animals. With a laugh, he said repeated fire alerts have made him an emergency preparation expert.

“It’s like three a year,” he said. “It’s kind of crazy.”

In Shasta County’s Carr Fire, authorities said Wednesday all those reported missing had been located. A relative identified the latest known fatal victim as Daniel Bush, 62.

Bush had returned to his mobile home in the community of Keswick last Tuesday after undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery, but he was unable to drive and would have needed help to evacuate when the fire came through the neighborhood on Thursday, his sister, Kathi Gaston, told the Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding.

Gaston said her brother had wanted to stay in his own home, but he had spotty cell service and, with the power out, he might not have gotten word of the fire.

Gaston said she could not get to her brother’s house because, with the fire approaching, sheriff’s deputies had blocked the roads and then she herself had to evacuate.

“If we’d been able to go in when we wanted to, he’d be alive right now,” she said. “I’m very upset about it.”

National Park Service officials said Tuesday that the scenic Yosemite Valley and other areas will be closed at least through Sunday due to heavy smoke from the so-called Ferguson Fire. The closure began July 25.

It was the longest closure at Yosemite since 1997, when floods closed the park for over two months.

Authorities on Wednesday also ordered the evacuation of the tiny community of Wawona, south of the park, which has fewer than 200 residents. AP

CALIFORNIA, July 29: Firefighters battling a huge wildfire in Northern California kept it from doing more damage to the city of Redding but three smaller communities were in danger as flames closed in and residents packed up to leave.

The fire grew by about 35 percent overnight to 127 square miles (328 square kilometers) and pushed southwest of Redding, toward the communities of Ono, Igo and Gas Point. The winds that aided firefighters in keeping the flames from more populated areas were propelling it forward at a frightening rate.

“We’re not getting a break with the weather,” said Chris Anthony, a spokesman for Cal Fire, the state agency responsible for fighting wildfires. “It just continues to be really hot, really dry and we continue to get those winds. … This fire’s getting so big and there are so many different parts to it.”

The so-called Carr Fire was ignited Monday by a vehicle and exploded Thursday night, jumped the Sacramento River and pushed into Redding, about 250 miles (402 kilometers) north of San Francisco and the largest city in the region with about 92,000 residents. Two firefighters were killed and the latest tally of 500 destroyed structures was sure to rise. About 37,000 people are under evacuation orders, 5,000 homes are threatened and the fire is just 5 percent contained.

Elsewhere in California, large fires continued to burn outside Yosemite National Park and in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles near Palm Springs. Nationally, 89 active large fires have consumed nearly 930,000 acres in 14 states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. So far this year, nearly 37,000 wildfires have burned more than 4.25 million acres.

The Carr Fire destroyed nearly all of Keswick, a hamlet just west of Redding. One of the homes lost belonged to Shyla and Jason Campbell.

Jason, a firefighter, was six hours away from his home and family, battling a wildfire near Yosemite Valley, when the Carr Fire moved in with devastating speed.

“It’s huge flames, it’s coming up the hill, and everyone’s out and we’re watching it, then it goes down, and everyone’s like, ‘Oh it’s going out,’ ” said Shyla, 32. “And I’m like, ‘No, it’s going down the mountain and it’s going to come back up the next ridge.’ ”

She was right.

The family spent the night at a hotel. When Jason Campbell returned on Friday, he found their home of five years was gone, along with an RV and a boat.

“It’s tough,” Shyla Campbell said Friday as she sheltered in the city of Shasta Lake. “I just have to figure out where we’re going to stay. We’re just trying to stay away from the fire.”

Thousands of people scrambled to escape amid flying embers before walls of flames descended from forested hills onto their neighborhoods Thursday. At least two flaming tornados toppled trees, shook firefighting equipment and busted truck windows, taking “down everything in its path,” said Scott McLean, a spokesman for Cal Fire.

The flames moved so fast that firefighters working in oven-like temperatures and bone-dry conditions had to drop efforts to battle the blaze at one point to help people escape. Two firefighters were killed: Redding fire inspector Jeremy Stoke and a bulldozer operator whose name wasn’t immediately released. He was the second bulldozer operator to die in a California blaze in less than two weeks.

Residents who gathered belongings in haste described a chaotic and congested getaway as sparks flew and fire leaped across the wide Sacramento River, torching subdivisions in Redding.

Redding police chief Roger Moore was among those who lost their homes.

Greg and Terri Hill evacuated their Redding home of 18 years Thursday night with little more than their medications, photo albums, clothes and firearms, assuming they’d be back home in a few days.

When they returned Friday, virtually nothing was left but fine particles of ash. It was so hot, they couldn’t walk through it to see if anything survived.

“It’s pretty emotional,” Terri Hill said. “I know it’s just stuff. A lot of memories. But we’ll make new memories and get new stuff. Everybody’s safe.”

The Hills fled before they were told to, knowing danger was afoot when the power went out and helicopters suddenly began flying low overhead.

Liz Williams loaded up two kids in her car and then found herself locked in bumper-to-bumper traffic with neighbors trying to flee from Lake Redding Estates.

She eventually jumped the curb onto a sidewalk and “booked it.”

“I’ve never experienced something so terrifying in my life,” she said. “I didn’t know if the fire was just going to jump out behind a bush and grab me and suck me in.”

Fire officials warned that the blaze would probably burn deeper into urban areas before there was any hope of containing it. So far, the Carr Fire has either changed direction or was stopped before it burning into Redding’s city center. AP

SONOMA, Oct 12: Wildfires already well on their way to becoming the deadliest and most destructive in California history could gain momentum Thursday and erase even the modest gains firefighters have made.

Steady winds with gusts up to 45 mph (72 kph) with nearly non-existent humidity are expected to descend on the areas north of San Francisco where at least 23 people have died and at least 3,500 homes and businesses have been destroyed.

“It’s going to continue to get worse before it gets better,” state fire Chief Ken Pimlott said Wednesday.

Entire cities had evacuated in anticipation of the next wave, their streets empty, the only motion coming from ashes falling like snowflakes.

They included Calistoga, the historic resort town of wine tastings and hot springs, whose 5,300 people are all under evacuation orders. Tens of thousands more were also driven from their homes by the flames. A few left behind cookies for firefighters and signs that read, “Please save our home!”

The 22 fires spanned more than 265 square miles (686 square kilometers) as they entered their fourth day, many of them completely out of control. Modern, strategic attacks that have kept destruction and death tolls low in recent years just haven’t worked against their ferocity.

“We are literally looking at explosive vegetation,” Pimlott said. “Make no mistake,” he later added, “this is a serious, critical, catastrophic event.”

The community of Boyes Hot Springs in Sonoma County also was told to clear out Wednesday, and the streets were quickly lined with cars packed with people fleeing.

“That’s very bad,” resident Nick Hinman said when a deputy sheriff warned him that the driving winds could shift the wildfires toward the town of Sonoma proper, where 11,000 people live. “It’ll go up like a candle.”

The ash rained down on the Sonoma Valley, covering windshields, as winds began picking up toward the potentially disastrous forecast speed of 30 mph (48 kph). Countless emergency vehicles sped toward the flames, sirens blaring, as evacuees sped away. Residents manhandled canvas bags into cars jammed with possessions or filled their gas tanks.

State fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said 22 wildfires were burning Wednesday, up from 17 the day before. As the fires grow, officials voiced concern that separate blazes would merge into even larger infernos.

“We have had big fires in the past. This is one of the biggest, most serious, and it’s not over,” Gov. Jerry Brown said at a news conference Wednesday, alongside the state’s top emergency officials.

They said 8,000 firefighters and other personnel were battling the blazes and more resources were pouring in from Arizona, Nevada, Washington and Oregon.

Flames have raced across the wine-growing region and the scenic coastal area of Mendocino farther north, leveling whole neighborhoods and leaving only brick chimneys and charred appliances to mark where homes once stood.

In Boyes Hot Springs, residents had watched the ridges over the west side of town for days to gauge how close the billowing smoke and orange flames of the wildfires had come. On Wednesday, the ridges were obscured by the growing clouds of smoke.

With fires advancing from several sides in Sonoma Valley, law enforcement officers on loan from other areas of Northern California barred residents of evacuated communities from returning to see how the homes and businesses had fared. Manned roadblocks were set up between Sonoma and devastated areas of Santa Rosa.

Alejandro Rodriguez had been evacuated from one tiny Sonoma Valley town, only to have deputies come to the neighborhood to where he had relocated and tell residents there to pack up and go.

“I want to see my house, see if anything’s left,” Rodriguez said, gesturing at officers at one roadblock. “They won’t tell us nothing.”

Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano said hundreds of people were still reported missing. But officials believe many of those people will be found. Chaotic evacuations and poor communications over the past few days have made locating friends and family difficult.

The sheriff also expects the death toll to climb.

“The devastation is enormous,” he said. “We can’t even get into most areas.”

Helicopters and air tankers were assisting thousands of firefighters trying to beat back the flames. Until now, the efforts have focused on “life safety” rather than extinguishing the blazes, partly because the flames were shifting with winds and targeting new communities without warning.

Fires were “burning faster than firefighters can run, in some situations,” Emergency Operations Director Mark Ghilarducci said.

In Southern California, cooler weather and moist ocean air helped firefighters gain ground against a wildfire that has scorched nearly 14 square miles (36 sq. kilometers).

Orange County fire officials said the blaze was 60 percent contained and full containment was expected by Sunday, although another round of gusty winds and low humidity levels could arrive late Thursday. AP

OROVILLE, July 10:  Wildfires barreled across the baking landscape of the western U.S. and Canada, forcing thousands of residents to flee and destroying homes.

Here’s a look at the wildfires tearing through the West.

CALIFORNIA

Two major wildfires in California have forced nearly 8,000 people out of their homes.

About 4,000 people evacuated and another 7,400 were told to prepare to leave their homes as fire swept through grassy foothills in the Sierra Nevada, about 60 miles north of Sacramento, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Sunday.

The fire has burned nearly 4 square miles (11 sq. kilometers), injured four firefighters and destroyed at least 10 structures, but that number is expected to rise, fire spokeswoman Mary Ann Aldrich said.

The area burning was southeast of Oroville, where spillways in the nation’s tallest dam began crumbling from heavy rains this winter and led to temporary evacuation orders for 200,000 residents downstream.

“It leaves you feeling like you can’t catch a break,” said Sharon Reitan, who sought shelter at an evacuation center with her boyfriend Sunday night.

They were in Oroville on Friday afternoon when the fire broke out and roads to their hillside home were blocked. They later saw photographs of their home burned to the ground.

“The road that we live on was hit hard,” Reitan said. “We’re in shut down mode right now, it’s so devastating.”

The fire was 20 percent contained. It was one of 14 wildfires across California that about 5,000 firefighters battled Sunday.

In Southern California, at least 3,500 people evacuated as two fires exploded in size at separate ends of Santa Barbara County and a third one threatened homes near a town in San Luis Obispo County.

One of the fires grew to 12 square miles (31 square kilometers), traversing a mountain range and heading south toward coastal Goleta.

There was minimal containment, and flames shut down State Route 154, which is expected to remain closed for days. At least 20 structures burned, but officials didn’t say if they were homes.

The fire broke out near a campsite and sent hundreds of campers scrambling, including about 90 children and 50 staff members at the Circle V Ranch who had to take shelter until they could be safely evacuated.

Amayah Madere told KCBS-TV she was in the pool when a counselor told the children to get out and change in a hurry. She said they waited in a dining hall while firefighters fought the fire and the counselors sprayed down the area with water.

“I prayed that if I didn’t die I would go to church, and right when I prayed the firefighters came,” Madere said.

Crews were also using an air attack against another blaze about 50 miles north that exploded in size to 37.5 square miles (97 square kilometers). About 200 rural homes east of Santa Maria were evacuated after the fire broke out Saturday and was fed by dry gusts.

Some of the firefighters working to contain that blaze were sent to nearby San Luis Obispo County when a fire broke out Sunday and threatened numerous structures near the town of Santa Margarita. Officials said the fire burned 340 acres.

ELSEWHERE IN THE WEST

Firefighters have been able to build containment lines around about half the wildfire that forced the evacuation of hundreds of people near Breckenridge, Colorado. The fire has not spread since it broke out Wednesday and was still less than a square mile (about one-third square kilometer) Sunday.

In rural Arizona, fire officials say three homes were among 10 buildings that were burned. The wildfire there has led to the evacuation of the entire town of Dudleyville, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Phoenix.

A wildfire burning in near Summer Lake in south-central Oregon has destroyed a hunting cabin and an outbuilding.

In Nevada, fire officials have ordered evacuations for a wildfire that is near the same area where another blaze has already burned for days.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Firefighters were contending with more than 200 wildfires burning in British Columbia that had destroyed dozens of buildings, including several homes and two airport hangars. The three biggest fires, which have grown in size to range from 9 to 19 square miles (23 to 49 square kilometers), had forced thousands of people to flee.

“We are just, in many ways, at the beginning of the worst part of the fire season and we watch the weather, we watch the wind, and we pray for rain,” outgoing Premier Christy Clark told reporters in Kamloops.

Rob Schweizer, manager of the Kamloops Fire Centre, said it had been an unprecedented 24 hours.

“We probably haven’t seen this sort of activity that involves so many residences and people in the history of the province of B.C.,” he said.-AP