Front line… A Long Beach firefighter yells to his crew as he mops up hot spots after the Rocky Fire in Lower Lake, California.
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An evacuation and road closures have been lifted.
A firefighter monitors flames from the Rocky Fire as it approaches a home Friday near the town of Lower Lake, at the southeastern end of Clear Lake.
The Swedes Fire began at about 11:21 a.m. Wednesday.
A total of 23 large fires, many of which were caused by lightning strikes, were scorching across Northern California on Saturday, said Daniel Berlant, the spokesperson for the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in California, according to The Eagle.
A wildfire along northern California’s inland coastal range has now burned almost 46,000 acres and forced the closure of two highways, officials said on Sunday, after a second blaze near the Oregon border killed a firefighter.
California is in the midst of a four-year drought that has created a dangerously dry environment.
‘We owe that not only to the family and to the friends and to the employees that worked with Dave, but we also owe it to the agency and the rest of the firefighters, so that whatever did happen won’t be repeated if possible, ‘ Forest Service spokeswoman Heather Noel told the Associated Press. His body was recovered the following day.
Ruhl, of Rapid City, South Dakota, 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.
The fire had grown to about 3,000 acres by Saturday, and it was 5 percent contained.
The blaze threatened 450 buildings, but none have been destroyed. By Saturday, the fire that killed Ruhl had burned about three square miles and was only 5 percent contained.
“We saw it behind our house”. “We see this all too often”, Tomachoff said. Returning Friday, the animals were gone and the stable doors open, and Flannery said she believes fire crews removed them. A senior local official said video footage indicated she was not mistreated in jail. “The animals and the family is the most important”.
By early Thursday, it had covered more than 1,000 hectares.
In fact, thousands of lightning strikes since Thursday ignited hundreds of small wildfires, but those thunderstorms brought little rain, authorities said, and the smaller fires became part of larger fire complexes. “Current strategic constraints include lack of access to areas of the fire, very hot and dry weather, critical fuels and changing winds….”
Cal Fire Capt. Ron Oatman says residents of the affected areas should be prepared for evacuations so they’re not surprised when they get a phone call or a knock on the door.
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Contact was lost with Ruhl Thursday night.
