Fire peril closes national forests in California
PLACERVILLE, Calif. — Millions of acres of national forest in Northern California are being closed because of dangerous fire conditions that already have sent a score of blazes raging through the area and destroyed hundreds of homes.
The U.S. Forest Service announced Thursday that beginning on Sunday it will close nine national forests from near Lake Tahoe at the Nevada border on the east all the way west to Six Rivers National Forest, which stretches north to the Oregon border and alone is more than 1 million acres.
The Eldorado National Forest already had been closed because of the Caldor Fire, which gutted the Sierra Nevada town of Grizzly Flats this week. The uncontained blaze had destroyed well over 100 square miles of land.
After growing to 10 times its original size in just two days, the fire’s progress slowed a bit Thursday and it was pushing east into less-populated forest areas. However, some 25,000 people remained under evacuation orders.
Fire managers rushed resources to the fire growing on steep slopes in a forested region southwest of Lake Tahoe. More than 650 firefighters and 13 helicopters were assigned to the blaze, and air tankers from throughout the state were flying fire suppression missions there as conditions allowed, authorities said.
“The hope is with the additional resources and personnel on scene, we can really start to build that box around this fire and start the containment,” said Keith Wade of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
In Omo Ranch, close to where the fire started, a bulldozer ripped out trees to build a fire line and stop the blaze from spreading south.
While nearly the entire town evacuated, Thurman Conroy and his wife, Michele, stayed behind to protect their house and their business, Conroy General Store. But they were prepared to flee if the fire got too close.
“The fire wants us bad, because it’s made every attempt it can to get out of that canyon and up this way,” Thurman said. “So they keep beating it down. And it’s just … it’s resilient, it’s stubborn, it won’t go away. That’s all we can do.”
Evacuees from the Caldor Fire found refuge in places such as Green Valley Community Church in Placerville, west of the fire, where they set up tents and trailers in a parking lot.
Gusty weather has pushed a series of disastrous blazes through California trees, grass and brush. A dozen fires threatened thousands of homes and the hottest have forced evacuations of entire small communities tucked into scenic forest areas.
More than 10,000 firefighters were on the lines.
The Dixie Fire, burning since July 13 in the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades, ballooned further to about 1,060 square miles and was only 35% contained, authorities said.
It is the first fire in recorded state history to stretch east and west all the way across the Sierra Nevada range, authorities said.
The fire, which gutted the town of Greenville two weeks ago, has destroyed more than 1,200 buildings including 649 homes, according to ongoing damage assessments.
There have been a handful of injuries but no deaths.
One small but destructive blaze burned through a mobile home park and reduced an estimated 50 homes to ashes in Lake County, about 80 miles north of San Francisco.