Helicopters rescue about 200 trapped in California wildfire
About 200 people were rescued by helicopter Saturday night into Sunday morning after a fast-growing wildfire trapped them at a reservoir in the Sierra National Forest in California, authorities said.
Dozens of evacuees were packed in military helicopters: Two UH-60 Black Hawks and a CH-47 Chinook helicopter were used to help in the rescues and fly those who had been trapped at the Mammoth Pool Reservoir to Fresno Yosemite International Airport, said Brad Alexander, a spokesman for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
About 20 people were injured, he said, and some were taken to area hospitals. Two people stayed behind, refusing to be evacuated, the Madera County Sheriff ’s Office said on Twitter on Sunday. The evacuations were complete, it said.
“We’re all in awe of the California National Guard pilots who were able to land and evacuate citizens during a firestorm like that,” the sheriff, Tyson Pogue, said.
Earlier, the Fresno Fire Department
offered a different assessment on Twitter: It said 63 people had been rescued, with two severely injured, 10 moderately injured and 51 others with minor or no injuries.
The conditions of those injured or hospitalized were not immediately available.
California’s emergency services office coordinated mutual aid from the state’s National Guard and Naval Air Station Lemoore after the Madera County sheriff asked for help, Alexander said. Visibility was a significant challenge for pilots throughout the rescue, Alexander said.
The sheriff ’s office wrote on Facebook late Saturday that about 150 people had been sheltering at the Mammoth Pool Boat Launch.
The Mammoth Pool Reservoir, which is about 80 miles from Fresno, is “very remote and accessible by one two-lane road,” said Sarah Jackson, a spokeswoman for the sheriff ’s office.
“When that road is blocked, it becomes very difficult to come and go, let alone in an emergency-type situation,” she said.
The area is heavily forested, and as a result, “you can assume there are burned and living trees” cutting off the only exit, she said.
“It’s either fire or trees blocking the road,” she said, adding that authorities had asked people to avoid the area.
Alexander said the road was cut off because of the direction of the fire and was no longer accessible because of the intensity of the heat as well as smoke, damage, threat of debris and fallen trees.
The Creek Fire, which has grown to at least 45,000 acres, began Friday just as the holiday weekend was getting started, according to officials.
The wildfire, which started near the communities of Big Creek and Huntington Lake, prompted several evacuations in Big Creek, Huntington Lake, Shaver Lake and the Cascadel Woods, the U.S. Forest Service said Sunday.
About 800 personnel from several state and local agencies were challenged by steep, rugged terrain, heavy fuel loading and high temperatures, authorities said.
California is still reeling from a heat wave last month that exacerbated a series of devastating wildfires, including the second- and third-largest fires in the state’s history.