In central California’s wine region, the Chimney fire has burned 7,300 acres near the city of San Luis Obispo, destroying 40 buildings, while 76,000 acres have been scorched in the scenic coastal area of Big Sur.
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Tolmachoff said it was rare to have so many people evacuated but not unheard of.
Alan Griffien describes how by using buckets of water and a garden hose he was able to keep both his and his neighbor’s house from being burned during the Clayton Fire that raced through his neighborhood in Lower Lake on August 15, 2016.
More evacuations are being lifted as firefighters gain ground on a wildfire that decimated a town north of San Francisco.
“It’s to the point where explosive fire growth is the new normal this year”, Glenn Barley, a fire chief with the San Bernardino unit of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal-Fire) said at a news conference Wednesday.
The blaze has destroyed more than 175 structures and is threatening an additional 380.
A team is working on a full assessment of the destruction.
Wildfires have ripped through California in the past, but recent fires have grown stronger and hotter. He appeared in court Wednesday but did not enter a plea.
The 40-year-old former construction worker turned his head away from television cameras in the courtroom during his arraignment in Lake County. But they did not have enough evidence to make an arrest until the weekend blaze ripped through Lower Lake.
The Miramichi fire started in New Brunswick, Canada, but quickly spread to portions of Maine. The lawyer urged people to remember his client is presumed innocent.
“This fire is burning in significantly different terrains at multiple elevation levels”, making it hard to fight, Sherwin said.
Almost a decade ago, Pashilk was an inmate firefighter while serving time on drug possession and firearms charges, according to California corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters.
Fire crews gained some significant ground on a massive Northern California wildfire that has destroyed 175 homes, businesses and other structures and charred almost 7 square miles.
Pashilk was ordered to return to court on September 7th for arraignment.
An attorney listed as representing Pashilk did not return a call requesting comment.
Ash rained down on motorists from billowing black smoke, while aerial pictures from KNBC captured a roadside “firenado” in which swirling gusts of wind sent flames twisting high into the air. Some fire whirls dissipate nearly immediately, but others travel along the ground sustaining themselves as the wind pushes the flames closer together making the heat more intense and destructive, Capt Howard Deets told the Los Angeles Times.
Amid desperate efforts to ensure evacuations and control the fire there was no official tally of property damage, but authorities spoke of dozens of homes destroyed.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for San Bernardino County, just 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles, where the so-called Bluecut Fire was quickly growing.
The Los Angeles Times reported hundreds of residents of Wrightwood were staying in their houses, despite dire warnings from authorities.
The fire has consumed almost 47 square miles in Cajon Pass, a critical highway and rail corridor through mountain ranges that separate major population centers from the Mojave Desert.
In another sign of progress, fire officials lifted numerous evacuation orders in the town, allowing about 4,000 residents to return home earlier in the day.
A firefighter battles the Blue Cut fire near Los Angeles which has led to evacuated orders for 82,000 people. The fire is climbing the flanks of the San Gabriel Mountains, where Wrightwood sits at an elevation around 5,900 feet.
The Clayton fire threatened about 1,500 structures at its peak.
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Before Wednesday, firefighters already were battling eight large wildfires across the state. Crews in the fire zone on Wednesday are expected to face temperatures in the 90s, winds of 30-40 miles per hour and humidity of 3-10 percent.
