Firefighter David Ruhl, 38, of Rapid City, South Dakota, died after being trapped in a wildfire in Alturas, California, while helping to fight the Frog Fire blaze, reported San Francisco CBS Local.
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The Rocky Fire’s origin may be unknown, but the surge in wildfires that have burned through California in recent years has been widely attributed to the state’s severe drought. The completed final report will be made public, the U.S. Forest Service said.
The Frog Fire southeast of Lava Camp on the Big Valley Ranger District started yesterday afternoon, exhibiting active fire behavior and growing to more than 800 acres by this evening with active spotting ahead of the fire front.
The fires prompted Governor Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency for California and activate the California National Guard to help with disaster recovery.
One fire, the Frog Fire in Modoc County, is blamed for the death of a U.S. Forest Service firefighter. Residents of 200 homes in the community of Cascadel Woods were ordered to evacuate Thursday. All communication was lost and it wasn’t until the following day when five percent of the wild fire was tamed that they discovered his lifeless body. We saw the smoke pouring over. Find us on Facebook too!
When they returned Friday, they found their two horses and one mule were gone.
“The rest of this is just material stuff”, she said.
A woman was arrested in connection with a small fire near Groveland, a stop-off point for travelers headed to Yosemite National Park.
Lisa Ann Vilmur was arrested Thursday night on allegations of recklessly causing a fire.
Efforts to keep wildfires at bay have been ramped up significantly, and the state of California needs all the help it can get from qualified forest firefighters. The fire, which ignited Saturday, burned through more than 3 1/2 square miles and was nearly fully contained.
Twenty-nine additional Florida Forest Service fire personnel are now deployed and assisting in various wildland firefighting and management positions throughout the western United States.
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The largest inferno, the Rocky Fire, has already incinerated 54,000 acres in three counties.
