The blaze was one of 10 active wildfires Sunday, majority in Northern California that continue to threaten thousand more homes.
Advertisement
The Valley Fire, which is north of the wine-producing region of Napa Valley, has burned 75,100 acres and is now 53 percent contained, according to Cal Fire.
One person died and 10 homes burned in a fire that started Saturday in California’s Carmel Valley south of Monterey, fire officials said. A 1991 fire in the Oakland Hills ranks as California’s deadliest fire and its worst in the number of structures (2,900) destroyed.
It was day three of the Tassajara Fire, and investigators still did not know what caused the 1,086-acre blaze, said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Scott McLean.
Firefighters are gaining ground on the Valley and Butte fires that destroyed hundreds of homes and killed five people.
In letters to President Barack Obama, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today requested Presidential major disaster declarations for the state following the Valley Fire and Butte Fire, which have scorched more than 145,000 acres, taken lives and destroyed thousands of homes and structures. Most of that destruction was in Lake County, where more than 1,200 houses and apartment complexes burned.
“It was an unusual house, so they just kept showing it all week”, Leonardi said.
The second wildfire raging in California is dubbed the Butte Fire and has been burning for over a week as well. Rob Brown, another Lake County supervisor, said they are trying to match homeless residents with semi-permanent housing, either through empty vacation homes or rooms at the long-shuttered Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa in Kelseyville, California. It was 69 per cent contained as of Sunday evening. “We are hopeful these people are located and returned and reunited with their loved ones”, he said.
Anyone who lost their home and needs assistance can call the American Red Cross at 831-626-5262. Only 65 percent of the wildfire has been contained and it has resulted in the death of two people. On Saturday, officials allowed another 1,300 people to return to nearby Middletown.
Advertisement
Tents are pictured at an evacuation center for residents affected by the Valley Fire, at the Napa County Fairgrounds in Calistoga, California on September 15. Of course, not everyone who has left has a home to return to. She and her husband were told that their whole town was gone.
