Brown asks Trump for wildfire aid
California battles 17 major blazes ‘Hazardous’ smoky air shuts Yosemite in peak tourist season
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday called on President Donald Trump to help California fight and recover from another devastating wildfire season.
Brown, who inspected neighborhoods wiped out by a wildfire in the Northern California city of Redding, said he was confident the president he has clashed with over immigration and pollution policies would send aid, which Trump did last year when California’s wine country was hit hard.
“The president has been pretty good on helping us in disasters, so I’m hopeful,” said Brown, a Democrat. “Tragedies bring people together.”
Brown’s call for help came shortly before authorities called on residents in Glenn and Colusa counties in Northern California to evacuate as a wildfire there continues to grow.
Cal Fire issued the evacuation order Saturday night for people who live in several parts of the counties, including an area just east of the boundary of Mendocino National Forest. The blaze, known as the Mendocino Complex fire, has grown to 357 square miles and is 32 percent contained, according to Cal Fire.
The National Weather Service forecasts hot and windy conditions to persist in Northern California.
There are 17 major fires burning throughout California, authorities said. In all, they have destroyed hundreds of homes, killed eight people — including four firefighters— and shut down Yosemite National Park.
Hundreds of colleagues, family and friends attended a memorial service Saturday in Fresno for National Forest Service Capt. Brian Hughes, the Fresno Bee reported. Hughes was killed July 29 by a falling tree while fighting the wildfire that has closed Yosemite National Park at the height of tourist season.
Firefighters have achieved 41 percent containment of that forest fire.
The fire had reached into remote areas of the country’s third-oldest national park. Workers who live in Yosemite’s popular Valley region were ordered to leave Friday because of inaccessible roads.
The biggest blazes continue to burn north of San Francisco, including twin wildfires fueled by dry vegetation and hot, windy weather. Those fires destroyed 55 homes and forced thousands of residents to flee their neighborhoods about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of the city. They have grown to a combined 300 square miles (648 kilometers).
The two fires have charred an area of the forested, rural area five times the size of San Francisco and were only 27 percent contained. Thousands of people remain evacuated.
The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings of critical fire weather conditions through Saturday night, saying a series of dry lowpressure systems passing through the region could bring wind gusts of up to 35 mph (56 kph) that could turn small fires or even sparks into racing walls of flames.
“This is a particularly dangerous situation with extremely low humidity and high winds. New fires will grow rapidly out of control, in some cases people may not be able to evacuate safely in time should a fire approach,” the weather service said in its bulletin for the Mendocino area north of San Francisco.
Meteorologist Steve Anderson said temperatures will remain in the 90s in the region throughout the week with wind gusts reaching 25 mph (40 kph) during the day Sunday.
“It’s not good firefighting weather,” Anderson said.
More evacuations were ordered Saturday afternoon for an area of Mendocino and Lake counties where the week-old twin fires are threatening about 9,000 homes. The largest of the two fires was 50 percent contained.
The fire remained several miles from the evacuated communities along the eastern shore of Clear Lake, but “it looks like there’s dicey weather on the way,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Jane LaBoa said.
However, most evacuations were lifted by Saturday in and around Redding, where armies of firefighters and fleets of aircraft continue battling an immense blaze about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the Oregon line. Some areas on the fire’s southeastern flank were reopened to residents.
The fire near Redding, which killed six people and incinerated 1,067 homes, started two weeks ago with sparks from the steel wheel of a towed-trailer’s flat tire, Department of Agriculture and Fire Precention officials said.
The blaze is currently 41 percent contained.
The fire burned slowly for days before winds suddenly whipped it up last week and drove it furiously through brush and timber.
It burned so furiously on July 26 that it created what is called a fire whirl. The twirling tower of flame reached speeds of 143 mph (230 kph), which rivaled some of the most destructive Midwest tornados, National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said. The whirl uprooted trees and tore roofs from homes, Dykema said.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the blaze had blackened nearly 206 square miles (533 square kilometers).
“Fire season is really just beginning,” Cal Fire chief Ken Pimlott said.
SAN FRANCISCO — Yosemite National Park’s iconic cliffs are shrouded in so much smoke from nearby wildfires that the air quality is worse than anywhere in America and is rivaling Beijing.
The unhealthy haze prompted officials to close the scenic Yosemite Valley and other areas on July 25 along with hundreds of campsites and hotels in what has become the park’s longest closure in more than two decades. Officials say they tentatively plan to reopen Monday after a 12-day closure but will reassess this weekend.
“We are hoping to get back open on Monday but conditions have to be safe,” said park spokesman Scott Gediman, who said the decision will be based on air quality, visibility, weather patterns and safety for firefighters who are performing protective measures known as back burning near the park’s southwestern border.
Coming at the height of the summer season, the closure has dealt a financial blow to Yosemite, a crown jewel of the National Park System, and caused upheaval for thousands of tourists whose summer trips have been abruptly canceled.
“I’m totally gutted we can’t visit Yosemite,” said British tourist Caroline Lansell, on holiday.