Fires’ smoke blankets San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO – Thousands of people were under orders to evacuate in areas surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday as nearly 40 wildfires blazed across the state amid a blistering heat wave in its second week. Smoke blanketed San Francisco.
Police and firefighters went door-todoor before dawn Wednesday in a frantic scramble to warn residents to evacuate as fire encroached on Vacaville, a city of about 100,000 between San Francisco and Sacramento. Fire officials said at least 50 structures were destroyed and 50 were damaged and that four people were injured.
Television footage showed some homes in flames and thick ash dropping in a rural area near Interstate 80 as the fire appeared to head toward more densely populated areas.
Diane Bustos told KPIX-TV that she and her husband tried to drive out but their vehicle caught on fire and they had to flee on foot.
“I got all these flames on me and I lost my shoe, but I made it. God saved me,” she said.
Many evacuees were alerted by calls to flee around 2:30 a.m., the Vacaville Reporter newspaper said.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said blazes were exhibiting “extreme fire behavior” and challenging firefighters. There is rugged terrain in several of the areas, and unexpectedly strong winds overnight fanned the flames.
“Throughout the state of California right now, we are stretched thin for crews” because of the fires, a state fire spokesman Will Powers said. “Air resources have been stretched thin throughout the whole state.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a statewide state of emergency Tuesday, saying the blazes were “exacerbated by the effects of the historic West Coast heat wave and sustained high winds.”
In San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, about 22,000 people were ordered to evacuate because of a fire burning in dense wooded parkland that threatened communities, Cal Fire spokesman Jonathan Cox said.
“This is a very active timber fire burning in two counties with a serious threat to both public safety and for structures that are out in front of it,” he said.
Thousands of homes and businesses were also threatened in the winegrowing counties of Napa and Sonoma in an area devastated by a series of deadly blazes in the last three years. Powers said much of the fire was burning through rural areas with steep terrain, making it difficult to get crews in.
In Napa County, Gail Bickett, 80, loaded up her three dogs in a truck to evacuate as the fire burned behind houses across the road, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“It’s scary,” she said. “It’s overwhelming.”
Christopher Godley, Sonoma County’s emergency management director, said about 10,000 people were under evacuation orders as crews battled two blazes and were working to set up an evacuation center with alternate locations for people exhibiting coronavirus symptoms.
He conceded that sources were strapped statewide.