Fire nears Feather River, burns out
About 30 evacuated before firefighters got blaze under control, at 25 acres
OROVILLE » A gust of southeast wind drove a sudden blaze Thursday afternoon starting at Grand Avenue and Highway 70 in Oroville.
Evacuation orders were issued for the area south of Grand Avenue to Highway 70 to the west, south to Oroville DamBoulevard and east to TableMountain Boulevard, Lincoln Boulevard to Long Bar Road, but those orders were soon reduced to warnings and later lifted.
About 30 evacuated to the Church of the Nazarene from downtown Oroville and the bluffs area, Oroville Public Safety Director Joe Deal said.
Deal said the Oroville Police Department “immediately went into unified command with Cal Fire-Butte County,” establishing two command points at Prospect High School and across the Feather River at First Avenue and Broderick Street.
At one point 13 engines, one hand crew and two aircraft were engaged with the fire. However by 4 p.m. evacuation orders were reduced to evacuation warnings.
ChouYang, whowashanding out water bottles to several members of the Butte County Sheriff’s Office at Grand Avenue, said the barn at his home on GrandAvenue and Bluffs Drive was quickly burned in the fire—“Thewater hose did not reach it.” He said two other men tried to help stop the fire.
Yang said he doesn’t have fire insurance, but was able to wet the roof of his home so it would not burn.
By 4:30 p. m., the fire had burned 25 acres and all evacuation orders were lifted as mopping up had begun. Incident Commander Isaac Ruiz said to his knowledge “no homes were burnt today.”
“We do not feel there is a threat to any area of the
city,” Deal said. “We got a lot of assistance fromthe river.”
No structures were threatened after the warnings
had been lifted, and Deal said he knew of only two that were destroyed in the sudden blaze. No injuries
were reported.