Weekend of concern looms for Northern Californians in face of fast-moving wildfires

People who live in the scenic woodlands of Northern California faced a weekend of fear as forest fires threatened to devastate thousands of homes.

The Dixie Fire, which burned much of the gold rush town of Greenville, threatened more than 10,000 buildings in the northern Sierra Nevada. It had engulfed an area larger than the size of New York City.

It was the largest current wildland fire in the country and the third largest in recorded California history, according to the State Department of Fire and Forestry Protection.

Wind-blown flames destroyed dozens of homes and most of downtown Greenville on Wednesday and Thursday, and also badly damaged Canyondam, a hamlet of about three dozen residents. The fire reached Chester, but crews managed to protect homes and businesses there, officials said.

Charlene Mays kept her Chester gas station open as long as possible and urged tired firefighters not to apologize for the ash trail their boots had left on the ground. But when the small town on the northwest shore of Lake Almanor lost power, Mays decided it was time for them to leave.

She ran home to get a box of valuables, including her husband’s class ring and some jewelry. The smoke was so thick it was hard to breathe. Lumps of ash broke when they hit the floor, making a sound like broken glass.

That was two days ago. Since then, Mays has lived in the car park at Lassen College in Susanville. Her husband stayed behind to service some of the water tanks that the firefighters were using. It’s just her, a Miniature Pinscher Chihuahua named Jedidiah and a Pit Bull named Bear.

Her house was still standing on Friday, but her fate was tied to the direction of the wind. She wasn’t alone.

“I have probably 30 of my regular customers here,” she said.

The Dixie Fire, named for the street it began on, now covers an area of ​​1,760 square kilometers and was only 21% contained. No injuries or deaths were reported.

The weather at the fireplace on Saturday was expected to have higher humidity and calmer winds with temperatures in excess of 32 degrees Celsius instead of the 40 miles per hour (64 km / h) gusts recorded at the beginning of the week and three-digit highs.

Still, the fire and its neighboring fires, which were only a few hundred miles apart, posed an ongoing threat.

Heat waves and historic droughts related to climate change have made fighting forest fires in the American West difficult. Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier over the past 30 years, and the weather will continue to be more extreme and forest fires more frequent and more destructive.

Near the Klamath National Forest, firefighters kept an eye out for small communities evacuated on the trail of the antelope fire, which had previously ignited 30-meter-high flames as it blackened bone-dry grass, scrub and wood. It was only included 20%.

Farther northwest, around 500 homes scattered in and around Shasta-Trinity National Forest remained threatened by the Monument Fire and others by the McFarland Fire, both of which were triggered by thunderstorms last week, firefighters said.

About a two-hour drive south of the Dixie Fire, crews had encircled about a third of the River Fire that broke out near the city of Colfax on Wednesday and destroyed nearly 90 homes and other buildings. Evacuations for thousands of people in the Nevada and Placer counties were lifted Friday. Authorities said three people, including a firefighter, were injured.

Dale Huber went to the fire zone on Friday to check on his brother’s house, which was in ruins.

“It used to be a bunch of cool things, and now it’s just rubbish,” said Huber. “You can’t fix it. We can rip it out and start over or run away. I think he decided to rebuild here. “

Smoke from the fires covered central California and western Nevada, causing air quality to deteriorate to very unhealthy levels. Air quality warnings stretched across the San Joaquin Valley and into the San Francisco Bay Area, where residents were told to keep their windows and doors closed.

California is well on its way to surpassing the last year that had the worst fire season in recent recorded state history. Since the beginning of the year, more than 6,000 fires have destroyed more than 3,260 square kilometers of land – more than three times the losses for the same period in 2020, according to state fire numbers.

California’s raging forest fires were among more than 100 large, active fires that burned in 14 states, mostly in the west, where historic drought conditions have left the land ripe and ripe for ignition.

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