Officials said Saturday that Ruhl died while scouting the fire zone in a vehicle on a forest road.
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A man with a reported history of mental illness crashed his care into a barricade at the Capitol on Friday. He had vanished Thursday while fighting the 800-acre fire and his body wasn’t recovered until Friday. The Forest Service didn’t release details about his death, adding that it was under investigation.
Black Hills National Forest supervisor Craig Bobzien said Ruhl was admired by his peers and cared deeply about his work.
“It’s making some good runs right now”, said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) spokesman Captain Ron Oatman.
‘Our courageous firefighters are on the front lines and we’ll do everything we can to help them.’.
A red-flag warning, designating the threat of gusty winds that risk fanning flames, was expected to remain in effect until late Sunday in the area of the Frog Fire.
Jacobson said Ruhl had been on temporary assignment since June in California, where he was an assistant fire management officer for the Big Valley Ranger District of the Modoc National Forest. Brown also mobilized the California National Guard to help with disaster response.
The fires ranged in size.
Berlant said on Twitter that the Rocky fire in Lake County grew to 22,500 acres and was five per cent contained.
By Saturday, the blaze about 100 miles south of the Oregon border had burned almost 3 square miles and was 5 percent contained.
They expect to be there for 14 days, spending most of their waking hours fighting fires, and spending nights outdoors. The highway was closed from Highway 16 to Highway 53 to all through traffic because of what Cal Fire described as “increased fire activity”.
The Pennsylvania firefighters, who joined with crews from Ohio and Maryland, were bound for Redding, Ca., located near the center of the northern part of the state, where the fires are concentrated.
Ruhl was one of several firefighters exploring the area when the small fire suddenly expanded.
Some Lake County residents are carrying on as usual amid the precarious conditions. “We extend our deepest condolences to his family”.
Erratic winds were challenging fire-containment efforts and moving the fire in all directions.
“But with the cool air in the night, it is going to the east now, and we’re hoping that it stays going that way for a little while”, Polito said Saturday morning.
Wildfires are a fact of life in much of California, but were far worse than usual this year because of bone-dry conditions, with the western US state gripped by a fourth year of record drought.
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Temperatures in Sacramento and other areas of northern California, where numerous fires are located, have topped 100 degrees recently.
