A 3-week-old wildfire engulfed a tiny Northern California mountain town, leveling most of its historic downtown and leaving blocks of homes in ashes.
GREENVILLE, Calif. — A 3-week-old wildfire engulfed a tiny Northern California mountain town, leveling most of its historic downtown and leaving blocks of homes in ashes, while a new wind-whipped blaze destroyed homes as crews braced for another explosive run of flames Thursday amid dangerous weather.
The Dixie Fire, swollen by bone-dry vegetation and 40 mph gusts, raged through the northern Sierra Nevada community of Greenville on Wednesday evening. A gas station, church, hotel, museum and bar were among many fixtures gutted in the town, which dates to California’s Gold Rush era and had some structures that were more than a century old.
The fire “burnt down our entire downtown. Our historical buildings, families homes, small businesses, and our children’s schools are completely lost,” Plumas County Supervisor Kevin Goss wrote on Facebook. The sheriff’s department said there was “widespread devastation throughout the area.”
“We lost Greenville tonight,” U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who represents the area, said in an emotional Facebook video. “There’s just no words.”
As the fire’s north and eastern sides exploded Wednesday, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office issued an urgent warning online to the town’s approximately 800 residents: “You are in imminent danger and you MUST leave now!”
A similar warning was issued Thursday for residents of another tiny mountain community, Taylorsville, as flames pushed toward the southeast. To the northwest, crews were protecting homes in the town of Chester. Thousands were under evacuation orders or warnings, but no injuries or deaths were immediately reported.
The blaze that broke out July 21 is the largest burning in California and had blackened over 504 square miles), an area larger than Los Angeles. The cause was under investigation but Pacific Gas & Electric has said it may have been sparked when a tree fell on one of its power lines.
The fire was near the town of Paradise, which largely was destroyed in a 2018 wildfire that became the nation’s deadliest in at least a century and was blamed on PG&E equipment.
Ken Donnell left Greenville on Wednesday, thinking he’d be right back after a quick errand a few towns over. He couldn’t return as the flames swept through. All he has now are the clothes on his back and his old pickup truck, he said. He’s pretty sure his office and house, with a bag he had prepared for evacuation, is gone.
Donnell remembered helping victims of 2018’s devastating Camp Fire, in which about 100 friends lost their homes.
“Now I have a thousand friends lose their home in a day,” he said. “We’re all stunned.”
By Thursday, the Dixie Fire had become the sixth largest in state history, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. Four of the state’s other five largest fires happened in 2020.
The fire forced Lassen Volcanic National Park to close to visitors.
Dozens of homes had already burned before the flames made a new run Wednesday. The U.S. Forest Service said initial reports show that firefighters saved about a quarter of the structures in Greenville.
“We did everything we could,” fire spokesman Mitch Matlow said. “Sometimes it’s just not enough.”
About 100 miles south, officials said between 35 and 40 homes and other buildings burned in the fast-moving River Fire that broke out Wednesday near Colfax, a town of about 2,000. Within hours, it ripped through nearly 4 square miles of dry brush and trees. There was no containment and about 6,000 people were ordered to evacuate in Placer and Nevada counties, Cal Fire said.