Victim of Eastern Sierra fire ID’d
Body of Sallie Joseph, 69, was found in her destroyed home near the Nevada state line.
The wind- blown blaze that destroyed much of an Eastern Sierra town and killed an elderly woman Tuesday jumped from home to home so fast that people were unable to save possessions before frantically evacuating, residents and authorities said Friday.
Mono County Sheriff Ingrid Braun said the f ire started with a spark of unknown origin behind Mountain View BBQ in Walker, a town of about 1,000 people on the California- Nevada border.
What has been dubbed the Mountain View fire “just whipped through” the community, she said, burning about 90 homes, many ranch- style properties spread apart.
“It would burn a house, skip a house, burn a house, skip a house,” she said. By Thursday, it had consumed more than 28,000 acres.
Extreme high winds in the area had caused Southern California Edison to cut off power to some nearby areas, but Braun said Walker receives power from Nevada- based Liberty Utilities and had not been cut off — though there is no current evidence that the blaze was caused by a failure of that system.
Authorities have so far reported one fatality, that of Sallie Joseph, 69. Braun said the woman was found in her home, which was destroyed by the conflagration.
A local television station, News4, interviewed neighbors of Joseph who said they tried to warn her but were turned back when f lames raced toward her home.
“I pounded on the windows, and I knew she might be there because the vehicles were, and I went inside the house and I screamed again,” said Charles Padilla, who was unable to make contact and lost his own home in the blaze.
The blaze no longer threatens Walker. “Rain and snow came in and put it out,” Braun said.
It continues to burn in Nevada, where the U. S. Bureau of Land Management is in charge of suppressing it.
The combination of f ire, rain and snow this week was not unprecedented in the Eastern Sierra, but it made it made for a strange mashup of meteorological events.
About 88 miles north of Walker, the Pinehaven f ire also started Tuesday afternoon in the Caughlin Ranch area of Reno, authorities said. It destroyed five homes and damaged 15 others but caused no fatalities.
That same night, chains were required for motorists crossing over the Sierra on Interstate 80 because of slippery conditions.
Braun said winds were so f ierce there was fear f ire trucks would topple going into the region. Now, she said, the community is focused on recovery.
“That is the beautiful thing about Mono County. We are resilient, and we take care of each other,” she said.