California fires bring more helicopter rescues and power outages

Inelva González, from Armona, California kisses her dog SayD at a marina, where campers were being held due to impassable roads, as the Creek fire continues to burn Monday, September 7, 2020, in Shaver Lake, California (Photo by MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ / AP)

SHAVER LAKE, California – Helicopters rescued more people from the wildfires Tuesday as flames chewed through completely dry California after a scorching Labor Day weekend that saw a dramatic airlift of more than 200 people and ended up with the largest power in the state cutting off 172,000 customers to test to prevent more fires.

Rescue helicopters pulled dozens of people out of the Sierra National Forest during the morning, the California National Guard said.

California has already set a record with 2 million acres (809,000 hectares) burned this year, and the worst part of the wildfire season is just beginning. The previous record was set just two years ago and included the deadliest wildfire in state history, which swept through the Paradise community and killed 85 people.

That 2018 fire was started by power lines amid strong winds and dry tinder conditions. The liability of billions of dollars in claims for that and other fires forced the utility company Pacific Gas & Electric to seek bankruptcy protection. To guard against further disasters, the company began preventative power outages last year when fire conditions are exceptionally dangerous.

That’s the situation now in Northern California, where strong, dry winds are expected through Wednesday. PG&E said it has learned from past problems and that this year it will seek to make outages “smaller in size, shorter and smarter for customers.”

More than 14,000 firefighters fight more than two dozen fires across the state. Two of the three largest fires in state history are burning in the San Francisco Bay Area.

California wasn’t alone: ​​Hurricane-force winds and high temperatures sparked wildfires in parts of the Pacific Northwest over the holiday weekend, burned hundreds of thousands of acres, and mostly destroyed the small town of Malden in eastern Washington. .

In Southern California, fires burned in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, and the forecast indicated the arrival of the notorious Santa Ana winds in the region. The US Forest Service decided Monday to close all eight national forests in the region and close camps across the state.

“The existing fires are showing extreme fire behavior. New fires are likely to start. The weather conditions are getting worse and we just don’t have enough resources to fight and contain all the fires, ”said Randy Moore, a forester in the Southwest Pacific region of the Forest Service that covers California.

Lynne Tolmachoff, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said it was “disconcerting” to have hit a record for area burned so early. September and October are often the worst months for fires because vegetation has dried out and strong winds are more common.

While the two gigantic San Francisco Bay Area fires were largely contained after burning for three weeks, firefighters struggled to corner several other major fires ahead of the expected winds. Evacuation orders expanded to more mountain communities on Monday when the so-called Creek Fire swept through the Sierra National Forest in central California.

It was one of many recent major fires that showed terrifyingly fast movement. The fire advanced 24 kilometers (15 miles) in a single day over the weekend. Since it began Friday for an unknown cause, it has burned 212 square miles (549 square kilometers). Forty-five houses and 20 other structures have been confirmed to have been destroyed so far.

Debra Rios was not home Monday when the order came to evacuate her hometown of Auberry, northeast of Fresno. Sheriff’s deputies went to her ranch property to pick up her 92-year-old mother, Shirley MacLean. They met at an evacuation center.

“I hope the fire does not reach my ranch,” Ríos said. “It doesn’t look good now. It is a tremendously large fire. “

Mountain roads saw a steady stream of cars and trucks leaving the community of about 2,300 people on Monday afternoon.

Firefighters working on rugged terrain saved the small town of Shaver Lake from the flames that roared down the slopes toward a marina. About 30 houses were destroyed in the remote village of Big Creek, resident Toby Wait said.

“About half of the private houses in the city caught fire,” he said. “Words cannot even begin to describe the devastation of this community.”

A school, a church, a library, a historic general store and a major hydroelectric plant were saved in the community of about 200 residents, Wait told the Fresno Bee.

Sheriff’s deputies went door-to-door to make sure residents were complying with evacuation orders. Authorities hoped to prevent the fire from moving west into Yosemite National Park.

Early Tuesday morning, California Navy and National Guard helicopters rescued 13 people from the China Peak area and 22 from Lake Edison and brought them to Fresno, the Guard said. In the late morning, a CH-47 twin-rotor Chinook landed with 46 more people and four Lake Edison dogs.

On Saturday, National Guard rescuers in two military helicopters took 214 people to safety after flames trapped them in a wooded camping area near the Mammoth Pool Reservoir. Twelve people were hospitalized, two of them seriously injured.

One of the southern California fires closed mountain roads in the Angeles National Forest and forced the evacuation of the historic Mount Wilson Observatory. Late Monday night, the Los Angeles County Fire Department told residents of Duarte, Bradbury and Monrovia near the woods to prepare for a possible evacuation.

Cal Fire said the so-called El Dorado fire in San Bernardino County started Saturday morning when a couple used a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device to reveal the sex of their baby.

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