He said the house disappeared in the smoke when he fled his home on Thursday.
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Rubble off a home demolished by wildfire in Lake Isabella, California.
Crews are busy Saturday counting the houses and mobile homes incinerated by a fire raging through rural communities around Lake Isabella in the southern Sierra Nevada. A street sign post smolders in front of a home burned down by a wildfire Friday, June 24, 2016, near Lake Isabella, Calif. The wildfire that roared across dry brush and trees in the mountains of central California gave residents… “We have firefighters in here trying to protect as many homes as they can”.
“My heart goes out to everyone here who has lost a home and my heart goes out to the family that perished yesterday in the fire”, Sergeant Henry Bravo of the sheriff’s office told evacuees at a community meeting on Saturday.
Some say they’ve learned from friends that their homes are gone.
Arizona: A major highway that had been shut down for several days by a wildfire in the eastern part of the state has reopened.
Other Bay Area agencies that have been deployed to the fire include Gilroy, Morgan Hill and South Santa Clara. Wolfe says motorists should not stop in any emergency operations area. Further south, the 5,260 acre San Gabriel Complex Fire burning in the foothills and canyons near Los Angeles is 30 percent contained today.
The rapidly-moving blaze in the southern Sierra Nevada scorched more than 47 square miles as it ripped through neighborhoods.
Thousands of firefighters have been involved in attempts to control blazes across California, where soaring temperatures and 20mph winds combined with five years of drought have helped fires to spread.
Firefighters have established a perimeter around a portion of a Utah wildfire burning in a forest on the edge of a small mountain town.
The fire, which prompted mandatory evacuation orders in at least nine counties, had been called 5 percent contained Friday but fire officials revised that number to 0 percent Saturday because they want to ensure retardant lines hold. Officials said they expect to find many more homes destroyed as the smoke clears and they do a more thorough check of smoldering neighborhoods. Three Kern County firefighters who suffered minor to moderate smoke inhalation were released from the hospital by Saturday, the fire department said.
Hundreds of firefighters took advantage of showers and thunderstorms the day before to close in on remaining hot spots.
More moisture is expected this weekend.
The human-caused fire began June 14.
About 1100 firefighters were battling the flames.
“It’s normally one or two structures you hear (about), maybe a handful, but I can’t even count the amount of houses around me that are burned down”, resident Chadrick Kirby told CNN affiliate KGET.
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“I was sure this place was gone last night”, Rogers said through tears Friday as she gestured at the destruction around her. “I mean look at this, I can’t believe it. It’s like a scary movie”.
