Mill fire explodes near city of Weed

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“It just felt like it was following me,” she said.

The fire grew Friday night as crews contended with wind gusts up to 36 mph and dry fuels, Brady said. It was burning among grasses, brush and timber.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday night declared a state of emergency for Siskiyou County due to the fire.

Weed residents recall the impact of the 2014 Boles fire, which burned more than 500 acres and destroyed 150 homes and other structures.

“Half of our town burned,” Greene said. “Everybody was affected. We all still have some PTSD from that.”

In Siskiyou County, already hit hard this year by the McKinney fire near Yreka, residents know to heed evacuation orders, she added.

The Mill fire has also forced evacuations in Shastina and Edgewood, according to Cal Fire. An evacuation shelter was set up at the Kahtishraam Wellness Center in Yreka. Large animals were being sent to the Siskiyou County Fairgrounds in Yreka.

As residents and workers left Weed, which has a population of about 2,600, most of the city was without power; Pacific Power, the utility company there, reported an outage around 1:30 p.m. affecting 7,625 homes and businesses.

Flames appeared to be hollowing out a commercial structure near the mill in the northern part of the city, according to images on social media. The mill is adjacent to rows of single-family homes.

“We’re closing up the building and trying to get out of the way,” said a social services worker at the Shasta View Nursing Center, hundreds of feet from where the fire was burning. She and other staff had evacuated 25 long-term residents and rehabilitation patients.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning Friday for the Northern California area near Mt. Shasta, due to the hot, dry conditions. Temperatures were at 94 degrees, with winds of up to 35 mph.

Siskiyou County was dealt another blow Friday, as a new fire sprung up to the northwest, between Yreka and Weed. The Mountain fire was first reported around 3:45 p.m. and had grown to at least 300 acres Friday night, Brady said. It was uncontained and burning in timber about a mile east of Gazelle Mountain, she said. Crews noted that the fire was crowning — lighting the tops of trees like torches, a sign of intense activity. Evacuation orders were in place.

The causes of both fires remain under investigation, Brady said.