Calif. firefighters overtaken by fire
3 flown to hospital after 14 suffer burns, smoke inhalation
Three firefighters are hospitalized after 14 suffer burns and smoke inhalation battling wildfires.
SHAVER LAKE, Calif. — More than a dozen California firefighters trying to protect a mountain fire station fromflameswere overrun by the blaze Tuesday, and severalwere hurt. Elsewhere, military helicopters rescued more than 150 people stranded in the burning wilderness.
Fourteen firefighters and bulldozer operators deployed emergency shelters as flames overtook them and destroyed the Nacimiento Station in the Los Padres National Forest on the state’s central coast, the U.S. Forest Service said. They suffered from burns and smoke inhalation, and threewere flownto a hospital inFresno, whereonewas in critical condition.
The injuries came as wind-driven flames of more than two dozen major fires chewed through bone-dry California after a scorching Labor Day weekend that saw a dramatic airlift of more than 200.
Rescue choppers pulled another 164people fromthe Sierra National Forest through the morning and were working to rescue 17 others, said Gov. Gavin Newsom, whodescribed pilots wearing night-vision goggles to find a place to land.
“It’s where training meets the moment, but it always takes the courage, the conviction and the grit of real people doing real work,” Newsom said.
California has already set a record with nearly 2.3 million acres burned this year, and the worst part of the wildfire season is just beginning.
“This is historic,” Newsom said in a briefing from Sacramento.
The previous acreage record was set just two years ago and included the deadliest wildfire in state history, which swept through the community of Paradise and killed 85 people.
That 2018 blaze was started by power lines amid strong winds and tinder-dry conditions. Liability from billions of dollars in claims from that and other fires forced the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, to seek bankruptcy protection. To guard against new disasters, the company last year began preemptive power shutoffs when fire conditions are exceptionally dangerous.
That’s the situation now in Northern California, where high and dry winds are expected untilWednesday. PG&E said it has learned frompast problems and will seek this year to make the outages “smaller in size, shorter in length and smarter for customers.”
Over the weekend, the company cut power to 172,000 customers to try to prevent more blazes.
More than 14,000 firefighters are battling fires around the state. Two of the three largest blazes in state history are burning in the San Francisco Bay Area.
California was not alone: Hurricane-force winds and high temperatures kicked up wildfires across parts of the Pacific Northwest over the holiday weekend, burning hundreds of thousands of acres and mostly destroying 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 called for the arrival of the region’s notorious Santa Ana winds. The U.S. Forest Service onMonday decided to close all eight national forests in the region and to shutter campgrounds statewide.
“Existing fires are displaying extreme fire behavior. Newfire starts are likely. Weather conditions are worsening, and we simply do not have enough resources to fully fight and contain every fire,” said RandyMoore, a forester for the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest region that covers California.
Lynne Tolmachoff, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said it’s “unnerving” to have reached a record for acreage burned so soon. September and October usually are the worst months for fires because vegetation has dried out and high winds are more common.
While the twomammoth SanFranciscoBayArea fires were largely contained after burning for three weeks, firefighters struggled to corral several other major blazes ahead of the expected winds. Evacuation
orders were expanded to more mountain communitiesMonday as the so-called Creek Fire burned through the SierraNationalForest in Central California.
Itwas one ofmany recent major fires that displayed terrifyingly swift movement. The fire advanced 15 miles in a single day during the weekend. Since starting Friday from an unknown cause, it has burned 212 square miles. Forty-five homes and 20 other structures were confirmed destroyed so far.
Debra Rios wasn’t home Monday when the order cameto evacuate her hometownofAuberry, just northeast of Fresno. Sheriff’s deputies went to her ranch property to pick up her 92-year-old mother, Shirley MacLean. They reunited at an evacuation center.
“I hope like heck the fire doesn’t reach my little ranch,” Rios said. “It’s not looking good right now. It’s an awfully big fire.”
Mountain roads saw a steady stream of cars and trucks leaving the community of about 2,300 onMonday afternoon.
Firefighters working in steep terrain saved the tiny town of Shaver Lake from flames that roared down hillsides toward a marina. About 30 houses were destroyed in the remote hamlet of Big Creek, resident TobyWait said.
“About half the private homes in town burned down,” he said.“Words cannot even begin to describe the devastation of this community.”
A school, church, library, historic general store and a major hydroelectric plant were spared in the community of about 200 residents, Wait told the Fresno Bee.
Sheriff’s deputies went door to door to make sure residents complied with evacuation orders. Officials hoped to keep the fire from pushing west toward YosemiteNational Park.