The blaze erupted on Saturday in the Carmel Valley of Monterey County, 125 miles south of San Francisco, and has scorched more than 1,000 acres while destroying or damaging 10 homes and claiming this year’s eighth California wildfire fatality.
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He said the exact economic cost “will take a long time to assess” and will include clearing debris, rebuilding homes and other structures, and reimbursing lost wages for residents displaced by the flames.
Monterey county is also being plagued with a fire that has over 600 firefighters on the scene. The Valley Fire in Lake County is now listed as the third most destructive fire in California history.
Both are approximately 70 per cent now contained.
The Valley Fire in Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties started September 12 near Cobb in Lake County. The latest count shows more than 1,900 families have been left homeless.
California Gov. Jerry Brown says he has requested a presidential disaster declaration, which would provide funds to support fire victims and to supplement state and local recovery efforts.
Since the fire began earlier this month, almost 20,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. They have not determined how many additional structures, such as sheds, barns and other outbuildings, were destroyed.
“Initially we do what we call a windshield survey, driving around and getting an idea of where the damage is, and then we get into a more extensive parcel-by-parcel survey of which houses were damaged and which were destroyed”, said Capt. Dan Olson, a Cal Fire spokesman.
Meanwhile, another 545 homes were destroyed by a separate blaze that killed at least two people and that has burned 110 square miles in the Sierra Nevada foothills. By this week, several hundred people remained in shelters.
The fire broke out Wednesday, September 9, around 2:30 p.m., and the cause is now under investigation.
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Containment of the so-called Tassajara Fire, a measure of how much of its perimeter has been enclosed within buffer lines carved through vegetation by ground crews, stood at 50 percent on Monday.
