Twin fires continue to grow
LAKEPORT, Calif. — Twin Northern California blazes fueled by dry vegetation and hot, windy weather grew Monday to become the second-largest wildfire in state history.
The two fires burning a few miles apart and known as the Mendocino Complex have scorched 428 square miles since igniting July 27 about 100 miles north of San Francisco, the state’s firefighting agency said.
The blazes are likely to surpass the largest California wildfire on record, which burned 440 square miles in December. It killed two people, including a firefighter, and destroyed more than 1,000 buildings before being fully contained Jan. 12.
Hotter weather is drying out vegetation, creating more intense fires that spread quickly from rural areas to city subdivisions, climate and fire experts said. But they also blame cities and towns expanding housing into previously undeveloped areas.
More than 14,000 firefighters are battling over a dozen major blazes throughout California, state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Scott McLean said.
“I can remember a couple of years ago when we saw 10 to 12,000 firefighters in the states of California, Oregon and Washington and never the 14,000 we see now,” he said.
Crews did make progress over the weekend against one of the two blazes in the Mendocino Complex with help from water-dropping aircraft, Cal Fire operations chief Charlie Blankenheim said in a video on Facebook.
But the other one is growing after spreading into the Mendocino National Forest.
The complex of fires, which has burned 75 homes, has been less destructive to property than some of the other wildfires in the state because it is mostly raging in remote areas. But officials said the twin fires threaten 9,000 buildings and some new evacuations were ordered over the weekend as the flames spread.
Farther north, crews gained ground against a deadly blaze that has destroyed more than 1,000 homes in and around Redding. It was nearly halfway contained, Cal Fire said.
The wildfire about 225 miles north of San Francisco started more than two weeks ago by sparks from the steel wheel of a towed-trailer’s flat tire. It has killed two firefighters and four residents and displaced more than 38,000 people.
Officials began allowing some residents to return to their neighborhoods. But tens of thousands of others were still evacuated.
Another blaze that erupted last week damaged a historic Northern California resort in the Stanislaus National Forest. The nearly centuryold Dardanelle Resort sustained massive structural damage, though the details were unclear, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported.
The rustic lodge 180 miles east of San Francisco is nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains and offers cabin and motel rentals along with RV sites, a store and restaurant.
The U.S. Forest Service reported the fire crossed a highway Sunday evening, forcing crews to retreat from the fire’s edge.
The resort owners said in a Facebook post “at this point it has been confirmed that there is ‘ massive structural damage.’ We are heartbroken and struggling with this news.”