Wildfire devours California homes
Property losses from a deadly Northern California wildfire, the most destructive this year in the western United States, have climbed to at least 585 homes and hundreds of other structures that have gone up in flames.
The latest tally, up from the previous estimate of 400 homes razed, came as firefighters gained some ground against the blaze, which erupted on Sunday and raced through several communities in the hills north of Napa County’s wine-producing region.
Thousands of residents were forced to flee, many without warning, as neighbourhoods burned around them. A reclusive elderly woman was later discovered to have perished in her home, and authorities have not ruled out finding additional victims.
Ana Malachowski, 33, was back in the devastated village of Middletown, picking through the ruins of her brother’s home as he tried to direct her by cellphone to spots in the rubble where jewellery and other personal items might be salvaged.
‘‘I’m just numb,’’ she said, recounting how she and neighbours tried in vain to battle the flames with garden hoses before giving up and joining the evacuation. Her own house survived.
‘‘This whole town is a big fam- ily,’’ she said. ‘‘You can’t say, ‘This family lost their home and this one didn’t’.’’
Lake County sheriff’s deputies began escorting some evacuees back to their properties to briefly tend to pets or livestock that were left behind.
But authorities said conditions in fire-ravaged areas remained unsafe, with downed power lines and other hazards.
An estimated 13,000 residents remain displaced by evacuations, while the blaze, dubbed the Valley Fire, still poses a potential threat to about 9000 buildings in the fire zone, roughly 80 kilometres west of Sacramento, the state capital.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokes- man Doug Pittman said the fire’s latest advance was mostly toward hillsides and mountains, away from heavily populated areas. But the fire was especially active near the small mountain town of Loch Lomond and the Aetna Springs resort.
The blaze has devoured more than 27,0000 hectares of timber, brush and grass left parched by four years of drought and weeks of extreme summer heat.
Water-dropping helicopters and airplane tankers grounded by thick smoke during the first days of the fire returned to the skies as visibility improved.
Temperatures have also cooled and winds have eased since the fire’s peak last weekend, when flames raced unchecked 16,000ha in just 12 hours.
The speed of the blaze caught residents off guard, forcing many to flee in chaotic evacuations through gauntlets of fire as surrounding houses and trees went up in flames.
Roughly half of Middletown, a town of about 1500 residents, has been left in ruins, with twisted, blackened debris strewn over the charred foundations of buildings reduced to ashes.
The 585 homes known destroyed represents the greatest property loss from a single wildfire among the scores of conflagrations that have raged across the drought-stricken western US so far this year.
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