California: Firefighter killed near Yosemite as evacuations grow
Deadly wildfires continued to rip through California from the northern border to mountain ranges in the south of the state as furious flames burned unchecked and tens of thousands of people continued to flee their homes.
Capt. Brian Hughes, a 33-year-old firefighter from Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, died after being hit by a falling tree Sunday. Hughes was a member of a tactical operation fighting the Ferguson Fire in Mariposa County. He was the eighth person killed in the recent spate of blazes.
Seventeen large wildfires in California continued to upend summer for residents and visitors alike, as closure of Yosemite National Park had to be extended through Friday, and 50,000 people were ordered evacuated from Riverside County to the Oregon border.
Statewide tallies released Sunday show that the wildfires have burned more than 200,000 acres, and that they destroyed 874 structures in the Redding area alone. Almost 20,000 homes remain under threat as fire evacuees are being sent to safety in Red Cross shelters, colleges and public schools. More than 12,000 firefighters are work-
schools. More than 12,000 firefighters are working to contain the dozen and a half fires authorities describe as “significant.”
The fires have claimed the lives of eight people, including a great-grandmother and siblings ages 4 and 5, a firefighter, and two bulldozer operators.
“We are well ahead of the fire activity we saw last year,” said Lynne Tolmachoff, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “This is just July, so we’re not even into the worst part of fire season.”
Continued hot and dry weather conditions, along with gusty winds in some affected areas, posed little promise for a quick quelling of the fires. They continue to rage from Riverside County’s San Jacinto Mountains in the south to Mendocino, Lake and Napa counties, and as far north as the California-Oregon border.
The recent fires have left more than a half-dozen firefighters injured and have caused the deaths of Jeremy Stoke, a fire inspector for the Redding Fire Department; Don Ray Smith, 81, a private bulldozer operator; and in the Ferguson Fire, 36-year-old Braden Varney, Cal Fire heavy fire equipment operator, and the unidentified firefighter. Other victims include the three family members from Redding and another Redding-area person whose name has not been released.
The largest wildfire to date remains the Carr Fire in Shasta County, which is barely contained and has consumed almost 90,000 acres.
Since Wednesday, all visitors have been barred from California’s greatest natural wonder, the Yosemite Valley. Officials have extended closure of the valley through Friday due to the Ferguson Fire, burning in the Sierra National Forest. The Ferguson Fire broke out 25 miles west of the park on July 13.
In what is increasingly becoming a grim routine, residents of Mariposa County faced a similar wildfire threat a year ago this month, when thousands fled the devastating Detwiler Fire.
Troublesome air quality has affected the areas surrounding the fires and even farther afield, with unhealthy conditions reported as far as northwestern Nevada. The spread of fine particulates there prompted Washoe County health officials to issue warnings about the smoky air to people with lung disease, the elderly and children.
North of the Bay Area in Lake County, a chalky haze nestled into the Lakeport area on Sunday, and visibility became more difficult into the afternoon. Every so often the wind would carry a loose ember into Kelseyville, and some of the evacuees there chatted while wearing surgical masks.
The Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport evacuated patients from all departments aside from the emergency room and family birth center Saturday evening, but the evacuation was lifted by Sunday morning.
So far, air quality in the Bay Area has not been impacted too significantly from the fires, said Ralph Borrmann, a spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. After consulting monitors Sunday afternoon, Borrmann said Bay Area counties remained in the “good” range, including Napa and Sonoma counties, where the impact would be most likely.
“The smoke from the fires up in Redding has been high aloft for the last couple of days, so it hasn’t been impacting what we breathe down at ground level,” Borrmann said. Despite some haze early on, “it hasn’t reached down to the breathing zone.” Chronicle staff writer Megan Cassidy and the Associated Press contributed to this report.