The Lake County Sheriff’s Department said Monday that deputies received a call Saturday night to check on the woman, but they were unable to approach her house because of the flames.
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The Valley fire has destroyed more than 400 homes. The firefighters suffered second-degree burns, but are in stable condition at the UC Davis Medical Center, according to Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant.
After a briefing on the Butte blaze, the governor’s emergency services chief said this summer’s fires were the most volatile he had ever seen.
Cal Fire told ABC News Sunday up to 1,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed by the blaze so far. Governor Jerry Brown issued an emergency proclamation for Lake and Napa counties-wineproducing regions north of San Francisco-due to the massive Valley Fire.
Berlant says wind gusts that reached up to 30 miles-per-hour sent embers raining down on homes.
Additional evacuations were ordered early yesterday.
No other deaths have been reported, but others are missing, though officials don’t yet know whether those unaccounted for are elsewhere.
A firefighter with the Montezuma Fire District puts out hot spots in Middletown, California. Reports are that the town has sustained serious damage. “In Middletown, there are cars burned out on the highway”, Ghilarducci said.
Residents streamed from Middletown on Sunday morning and had to dodge smoldering telephone poles, downed power lines and fallen trees as they drove through billowing smoke.
Now that some of the areas of destruction can be viewed for the first time since those flames cooled, areas of Middletown, California, look nearly like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
“I lost my business – it’s all burned up, my shop, my house, 28 years of living”, said Joe Thomas, who lives near the community of Mountain Ranch.
“The resident was apparently unable to self-evacuate and responders were unable to make it to her home before the fire engulfed the structure”, the statement said.
About 23,000 people have been displaced by two explosive wildfires that have decimated whole communities in Northern California, authorities there say. It has destroyed 86 homes and also forced the evacuation of thous-ands of residents.
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Twelve blazes are now burning but two – one about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of the state capital of Sacramento and one about 100 miles to the east – have been particularly damaging over the last week, destroying hundreds of homes and mobilizing thousands of firefighters. There was zero firefighting effort in Anderson Springs.
