Tag: california fires

At a Glance

• Evacuations were ordered for Paradise, Pulga and Concow in Northern California due to the Camp Fire.
• Authorities confirmed several injuries and hundreds of structures destroyed in Butte County.
• In Southern California, several fires burned in Ventura and LA counties, prompting thousands of evacuations.

Fast-moving wildfires prompted tens of thousands of evacuations in both Northern and Southern California, including the entire beachside city of Malibu, sending residents fleeing for their lives on short notice.

The largest inferno, sparked Thursday morning in Northern California, prompted numerous evacuations, including several entire towns.

By late Thursday, it became apparent that Paradise, a town of 27,000 people north of Sacremento, had been devastated by the fire.

“Pretty much the community of Paradise is destroyed, it’s that kind of devastation,” said Cal Fire Capt. Scott McLean late Thursday. “The wind that was predicted came and just wiped it out.”

At a Thursday evening news conference, Butte County Cal Fire Chief Darren Read said several hundred buildings, possibly as many as 1,000 or more, were destroyed in Paradise, though they won’t have a more exact number until they survey the damage. Another 15,000 remained threatened in the area, according to CalFire.

“The whole town’s on fire,” Paradise councilman Scott Lotter, who evacuated with his family, told the Sacramento Bee earlier Thursday. “It’s pretty grim.”

By Friday morning, the fire was encroaching on the nearby city of Chico, prompting new evacuations.

Capt. Scott McLean of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said flames from the blaze had reached the eastern side of Chico, a city of more than 90,000 residents.

The small communities of Stirling City and Inskip, north of Paradise, were also evacuatedm Friday.

It’s unclear how many casualties there have been as a result of the fire, but CalFire confirmed that three firefighters have been injured.

Officials confirmed to the AP that some Paradise residents who attempted to escape the fire in their vehicles Thursday were forced to flee on foot – some holding pets and even babies in their grasp – as the flames drew closer. With few options out of Paradise, roads quickly became gridlocked, and abandoned cars left in the middle of the road only made problems worse.

“It is pure chaos up here,” CHP public information officer Ryan Lambert told the Los Angeles Times.

Fueled by dry, windy conditions, the Camp Fire quickly spread to more than 31 square miles within about 12 hours and forced the closure of several roads, according to Cal Fire. The fire is 0 percent contained and it’s not yet known what sparked it.

“Right now, Mother Nature is in charge,” Cal Fire spokesman Bryce Bennett told the Sacramento Bee.

Other towns being evacuated include Centerville and Butte Creek, northwest of Paradise. Evacuations were also ordered in the nearby hamlets of Pulga and Concow.

“It’s bad,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told the Chico Enterprise-Record. “We’re trying to get as many people out as quickly as possible and save as many lives as we can.”

In Concow, some residents, like Colton Percifield, were forced to drive through the flames and thick smoke just to survive.

“The hardest part was there was no visibility … it was pitch black,” he told The Weather Channel in a phone interview Thursday night. He also said many of the homes in his neighborhood were destroyed by the fire, but he was able to safely escape.