Governor seeks U.S. aid for California fires
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday called on President Donald Trump to help California fight and recover from another devastating wildfire season.
Brown inspected neighborhoods wiped out by a wildfire in the Northern California city of Redding, and the Democratic governor said he was confident the Republican 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,” Brown said. “Tragedies bring people together.
Authorities said there are 17 major fires burning throughout California. In all, they have destroyed hundreds of homes, killed eight people and shut down Yosemite National Park.
“Fire season is really just beginning,” said Ken Pimlott of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
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 people to flee their neighborhoods about 100 miles north of the city. They have grown to almost 250 square miles.
The two fires have charred a 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 weather conditions through Saturday night, saying a series of dry low-pressure systems passing through the region could produce wind gusts of up to 35 mph 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.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Steve Anderson said temperatures will remain in the 90s in the region throughout the week with wind gusts reaching 25 mph today.
“It’s not good firefighting weather,” Anderson said.
More evacuations were ordered Saturday for an area of Mendocino and Lake counties where the week-old twin fires threaten 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 spokesman Jane LaBoa said.
However, most evacuations were lifted by Saturday in and around Redding, about 100 miles south of the Oregon line. Some areas on the fire’s southeastern flank were reopened to residents.
Fire officials said the socalled Carr Fire, 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.
The blaze is currently 41 percent contained.
The Forestry and Fire Protection Department, which uses acres to describe fire size, said the blaze had blackened nearly 206 square miles.
In the Sierra Nevada, firefighters achieved 41 percent containment of a forest fire that has shut down Yosemite Valley and other adjacent portions of Yosemite National Park at what is normally the height of summer tourism.
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 blaze has killed two firefighters.