In Northern California the Clayton fire tore through 4000 acres and nearly 200 homes, including that of Matthew Porter, who was tending to the US Olympic fencing team’s equipment in Rio when he heard the news.
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Hearst said the fire was burning the eastern portion of the ranch, which is mostly uninhabited wildlands, so the losses have been kept to a minimum.
Fire officials briefed residents at an evacuation centre Sunday morning at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds, where about 15 residents remained.
The blaze destroyed an estimated 105 homes and 213 other structures in San Bernardino County and now ranks as the 20 most destructive wildfire in state history, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The fire was 100 percent contained, officials said this week.
The Big Sur Lodge reopened Friday, but Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park day use and campgrounds remain closed as well as Andrew Molera State Park, and Garrapata State Park.
Crews battling the Chimney Fire faced more hot weather on Monday with conditions expected to stay the same through Wednesday, after which a slight cooling trend begins.
Administrators of the castle – a national landmark once owned by newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst – said on its website that the site is “closed until further notice due to wildfires in the area”.
The blaze in San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties remains 35 percent contained after destroying 36 homes.
“Though the percentage of containment didn’t go up, firefighters were able to gain ground reinforcing and laying more containment lines”, Steiger said. Fire officials say the blaze was about 3 ½ miles from the hilltop estate on Saturday.
Nevertheless, the California Parks and Recreation Department said the castle, a state-designated “historical monument” that hosts almost 800,000 visitors a year, would be kept closed through August 28 “due to the proximity of the wildfire”.
The blaze destroyed at least 300 structures, including 189 homes and eight businesses.
Investigators are asking for the public’s help in determining the fire cause.
“That’s why it’s imperative that people evacuate when we issue evacuation orders so firefighters can be in there working”, he said.
Minimal fire activity is also being reported from a fire burning west of Lakeside. This combined with unusually high summer temperatures over the last few years have made what might otherwise have been small, manageable fires into massive conflagrations that have provided significant challenges to firefighters and other emergency services.
“A fire has never come this close before”, State Parks supervising ranger Robert Chambers told the Associated Press earlier.
Most of those residents are returning to find their homes intact, though not all. Several other nearby communities have been under evacuation orders for days.
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In central Idaho, a 160-square-mile wildfire in a remote, mountainous area continues to defy containment and burn through timbered slopes that are hard for firefighters to reach.
