Category Archives: Forest Fires

UPPER LAKE, Calif. — A massive wildfire in Northern California has torched more than 1,000 homes in and around the city of Redding, authorities said Wednesday as some evacuees were allowed to return home and new blazes exploded in what has become an endless summer of flame in the Golden State. “Whatever resources are needed, we’re putting them there,” Gov. Jerry Brown said at a news conference. “We’re being surprised. Every year is teaching the fire authorities new lessons. We’re in uncharted territory.” Just a month into the budget year, the state has already spent more than one-quarter of its annual fire budget, at least $125 million, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Mike Mohler said. Cal Fire said another 440 buildings …have also been destroyed by the fire … which started July 23, [and] forced 38,000 people from their homes and killed six. 

Days after wildfires left a deadly swath of destruction in Northern California rural counties, new blazes exploded into life and threatened more homes in what has become an endless summer of flame in the Golden State. North of San Francisco, a fire threatened homes in an old ranching and farming area near Covelo. About 60 homes were ordered evacuated as the blaze erupted late Tuesday and winds whipped flames through brush, grass, oak, pine and fir near Mendocino National Forest, Mendocino County Undersheriff Matthew Kendall said. “We’re advised that the fire was threatening structures,” he said. The area was only about 64 kilometres north of where twin fires in Mendocino and Lake counties have burned an area nearly three times the size of San Francisco, destroyed seven homes and threatened 12,000 more. …”We’ve never really been out of the drought,” Scott McLean added. “We need several years of significant rainfall … to bring California back.”

BOISE, IDAHO — More firefighters are being called in to fight a fast-growing central Idaho wildfire that has been classified as one of the top priorities in the Great Basin region. The fire about 6 miles east of Bellevue on Tuesday nearly doubled in size to 54 square miles and started burning into the Sawtooth National Forest, a popular recreation area. Authorities say somebody shooting an exploding target on Sunday started the fire that’s burning in grass and timber. Authorities are asking for the public’s help in identifying that person. Fire spokeswoman Kim Osborn said about 150 firefighters are at the Sharps Fire with more arriving. She said they faced tough conditions Tuesday with temperatures in the 90s, low humidity, gusty winds and steep terrain.

At around 7:00 p.m. PT on July 26, a towering vortex of smoke and flame spun into the California sky. The tornado-like column rose over 16,000 feet into the air. It was a violent night for the Carr Fire, which after preying on profoundly dry forests, breached the Sacramento River and headed into the City of Redding, home to over 90,000 people. There’s no official name for the dramatic phenomena, though “firenado” has become popular. “I’m not particularly fond of the term,” Brenda Belongie, lead meteorologist of the U.S. Forest Service’s Predictive Services in Northern California, who works and lives in Redding, said in an interview. “But it works because of the strength of the fire whirl, the size — and the destructiveness is not unlike the power of a tornado.”

The death count from a rapidly growing Northern California wildfire rose to five Saturday after two young children and their great-grandmother who had been unaccounted for were confirmed dead. “My babies are dead,” Sherry Bledsoe said through tears after she and family members met with Shasta County sheriff’s deputies. Bledsoe’s two children, James Roberts, 5, and Emily Roberts, 4, were stranded with her grandmother Melody Bledsoe, 70, when fire swept through the rural area where they were staying Thursday. The three were among more than a dozen people reported missing after the furious wind-driven blaze took residents by surprise and levelled several neighbourhoods. Don Smith, an 81-year-old bulldozer operator from Pollock Pines, was killed when he was overtaken by the blaze while helping to clear vegetation in the wildfire’s path.

Capt. Brian Hughes

A firefighter was killed Sunday morning battling the massive Ferguson fire near Yosemite National Park, marking the second firefighting death in Mariposa County and the eighth fire-related death as more than a dozen wildfires rage across the state. Brian Hughes, captain of the Arrowhead Interagency Hotshots, was killed when he was struck by a tree while working with his crew to set a back fire …according to the National Park Service. He was treated at the scene but died before he could be taken to a hospital. He was 33. …Hughes… had worked with the Arrowhead hotshots for four years. …Hillsides in the area are filled with trees that have been killed by five years of drought and a bark beetle infestation [and] carpeted with bone-dry pine needles … combined with dry, hot weather, pose a huge risk to firefighters.

A red flag warning has been issued for Southern Oregon, which could mean an active day of wildfires across the region.  Gusty winds, high temperatures and low humidity could bring a difficult day, fire officials said Thursday morning.   Triple digit temperatures and air quality alerts continued across southwestern Oregon Tuesday as nine large wildfires in the region continued to burn. Thick smoke is expected to continue to cloud the Rogue Valley for the rest of the week, bringing hazardous air quality to cities including Ashland, Medford and Grants Pass. Due to deteriorating air quality, officials recommended wearing a mask outdoors and said sensitive populations, such as small children and pregnant women, might consider leaving town. The good news is that crews are making progress in containing the blazes. That’s particularly true of the area’s two most dangerous fires — Taylor Creek near Grants Pass and Grave Creek near Wimer. 

Despite hot, dry conditions, wildland fire crews wrangled 18 percent containment in the Garner Complex, which reached 19,944 acres Wednesday, fire officials said. The complex declared a conflagration by the governor last week comprises fires started by lightning on July 15 in northwest Jackson County and portions of Josephine and Douglas counties. It had grown by 2,575 acres in the past 24 hours, but some of that was intentional, according to a release issued by the Incident Fire Management team. Fires set within control lines to clear out fuels before they can threaten structures will create smoke and flames visible at night, the team said. Control lines are holding in a remote area of northwestern Jackson County, allowing reduced evacuation levels for addresses on the Graves Creek Road north of Ditch Creek.

A fast-moving wildfire — believed to have been sparked by arson — tore through trees, burned five homes and forced evacuation orders for an entire forest town as California sweltered under a heat wave and battled ferocious fires at both ends of the state. The Cranston Fire, which erupted Wednesday in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles, turned into a wall of flame that torched timber and tinder-dry brush. In a matter of hours it grew to 4,700 acres. It was threatening an estimated 600 homes, authorities said. The fire was the largest of at least five that police believe were purposely set Wednesday by a man whose car was reportedly spotted at the starting point of the blaze in Riverside County, officials said. …The fire in the San Bernardino National Forest sent up a cloud 50,000 feet high that was so enormous it created its own weather in the form of lightning.

The air quality in Southern Oregon was the worst in the nation Monday, and the rest of the week doesn’t look much better. Officials recommended wearing a mask outdoors and said sensitive populations, such as small children and pregnant women, might consider leaving town. Teams fighting wildfires received a little bit of help from Mother Nature Sunday.  Thunderstorms remained mostly in California and had little impact on Southern Oregon’s numerous wildfires, according to the National Weather Service in Medford. But the relief was short lived. Air quality across the region deteriorated Monday as little wind activity concentrated wildfire smoke over nearby cities.