Two dozen fires are raging in Oregon, California and Washington state.
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The Valley Fire has destroyed 585 homes and hundreds of other structures. Winds coming from the south-west were said to be blowing smoke east, away from Fresno-area vineyards. He declined to identify the second victim, saying the family hasn’t been notified.
One person has been confirmed dead, and others were unaccounted for, but authorities said they could be staying with relatives, on vacation or elsewhere and not impacted by the fire.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. (AP) – Cadaver dogs and their handlers searched Wednesday for a man feared to have perished in a fast-moving Northern California wildfire, and the local sheriff says he expects several more bodies will eventually be found amid the ashes.
The weather was cooperating, with rain falling steadily at an evacuation center where hundreds of people were staying in trucks and tents. The center at the Napa County fairgrounds was feeding about 1,000 people at each meal. The food is being prepared by wine country chefs who are donating their time and skill.
[A cruel death in raging wildfire for elderly Calif. woman with M.S. trapped in home] .
Authorities were searching nearby for a 69-year-old Leonard Neft who was reported missing by his family.
President Barack Obama expressed concern about the fires on Wednesday in a phone call to California Governor Jerry Brown.
“The lifting of the mandatory evacuation status is not meant to indicate that the fire is contained, but is being implemented as the threat of fire activity in this area has been reduced”, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said in an official statement.
California’s largest active wildfire has charred 218 square miles of grass, brush and timber since it was sparked by lightning July 31.
For the first time in more than six weeks, firefighters are getting a handle on the fire that now has flames simmering in places. It is now 15 percent contained.
About 170 miles southeast, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, Calaveras County coroner Kevin Raggio said two bodies were found inside burned-out homes.
Over the weekend, a fire in Lake County torched more than 60 square miles in 12 hours, destroying almost 600 homes, killing an old woman trapped in her Cobb Mountain home and sending thousands fleeing down flame-lined roads.
Throughout the state, more than 6,400 structures remained threatened. “A chance of rain exists tonight”.
Langtry Estate and Vineyard, one of the most high-profile wineries in the area, suffered fire damage to some of its 1,000 acres of vineyards. Containment is at 67 percent. Of the 10 most destructive fires in USA history, seven have been in California, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.
Authorities have arrested at least two suspects with burned out safes in their vehicles as they investigate reports of looting in the wake of Northern California’s devastating wildfire.
Lynnette Round, a spokeswoman with CalFire, said some people were being allowed back into their homes to retrieve medication, check on their belongings or their livestock but an evacuation order was still in force.
Police are being diligent about trying to protect homes. The 71,780-acre fire started September 9 and has destroyed 233 homes and another 175 structures.
Cal Fire says the blaze in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco, was 30 percent contained Wednesday morning. About 9,000 are still threatened.
Fire investigators are still working to find the cause of the fire which they believe to have started in the community of Cobb.
The house was unscathed, but the fire charred a hill south of the home after possibly igniting in or near the small shed, the newspaper reported.
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“It was like Armageddon”, said Steve Johnson, a 37-year-old construction worker from Southern California who was visiting his mother in the fire-ravaged community of Hidden Valley Lake. His burned-out auto was discovered on a route he would have used to escape.
