Thousands flee California wildfires

By Sam Stanton, Tony Bizjak, Ed Fletcher and Richard Chang

Sept. 13, 2015 2:35 PM PT

The Sacramento Bee

SACRAMENTO, Calif. More than 5,000 firefighters were battling two major blazes in Northern California on Sunday that have forced thousands of residents from their homes, destroyed scores of houses and other structures and laid waste to more than 164 square miles.

The Butte fire in Gold Country started Wednesday and burned at least 81 homes and 51 other structures by Sunday morning; Cal Fire said that tally was expected to rise as damage assessment teams continued their work, but the agency reported that fire at 20 percent containment Sunday morning.

The Valley fire that erupted Saturday afternoon in Lake County swept through the tiny town of Middletown and destroyed at least two dozen homes and an apartment complex, but also left major structures such as the local high school and Middletown Bible Church standing.

Cal Fire said that fire had burned 40,000 acres and injured four firefighters Saturday and that the fire was at zero containment Sunday morning.

Those two fires, as well as the Rough fire east of Fresno that has consumed nearly 130,000 acres and is the state’s largest, have grown exponentially largely due to the state’s four-year drought. The fires all have been more explosive and have grown faster than the state’s computer modeling had forecast.

“We’ve seen that over and over this year,” Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said. “We do a lot of science, looking at vegetation, topography and weather, but what is making this year so much different is the drought. That is why we have seen mass destruction.”

Wind shifts sent the Valley fire north Sunday, toward Highway 29 near Soda Bay on the southern shore of Clear Lake, and prompted officials to call for evacuations there.

Overall, Berlant said, Valley fire evacuees number in the thousands. Middletown was hardest hit Saturday night. Sunday, the fire had passed through.

At least two dozen homes and an apartment complex burned to the ground in Middletown, and visibility remained extremely limited, with heavy smoke still covering the area.

Middletown resident Gustavo Maldonado, 28, was clearing out his home Sunday morning to keep it from being targeted by looters and said most of the damage his house received was in the backyard and to the well.

His parents’ home a few doors down, however, was destroyed, and they and his daughter had to flee the fire Saturday while he was at work in St. Helena.

“I feel lucky that my daughter and parents were saved,” Maldonado said as he packed up sheets and blankets for what he expects will be a long stay elsewhere.

“We can’t live here anymore,” he said. “There’s going to be no electricity and water for the next weeks.

“I’m going to go stay with family members, get a hotel and call my insurance,” he said.

To the east of the Valley fire, in the Sierra foothills, thousands more residents fled the Butte Fire and sought shelter in churches, schools and the Jackson Rancheria Casino Resort.

“We’ve turned the hotel into an evacuation center,” said Rich Hoffman, chief executive of the Jackson Rancheria.

In addition to using the hotel space, cots were brought into the conference space.

The RV park was filled, and some people with animals slept in the parking lot with them, Hoffman said.

“We are just fortunate to have this facility,” he said.

He said the tribe has brought in toys and video game consoles to give the kids something to do.

At the Calaveras County Fairgrounds in Angel’s Camp, where other evacuees sought shelter, homeowners waited for word on the fate of their houses and neighborhoods.

“You remain optimistic until you have firm feedback,” said Sandy Tyler, who lives near Mountain Ranch. “We took a lot of care to create defensible space.”

At the same time, she said, she felt a little silly building a log cabin in the woods.

Meanwhile, Doug Quintall said he’s feeling good about his home, which is also near Mountain Ranch, surviving.

He does, however, believe he lost much of his musical equipment that was stored at a studio.

“I got my most important guitar and the computer with its recordings,” he said.

In some ways, spending time at the evacuation center is a lot like gathering the family for a funeral. Mike Surrette and Jerry Hanks have lived a mile apart from each other for years but just met after parking their trailers next to each other.

“A lot of bonding being done,” Surrette said, as he held a large cup of coffee.

Firefighters working the Butte fire were hampered by heavy smoke Saturday that kept air tankers and helicopters from flying, but clearing conditions Sunday left officials confident that air attacks could resume.

Officials also warned that they expected the tally of homes destroyed to increase as teams reach more remote areas for damage assessments.

About 100 firefighters from the Sacramento region have been deployed to the three major fires, including strike teams sent Saturday night to assist in the Valley fire in Lake County.

No fatalities have been reported in the fires, but four firefighters were burned during the early stages of the Valley Fire fight Saturday afternoon. The four were in stable condition at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in Sacramento, where they were airlifted Saturday.

Gov. Jerry Brown issued a state of emergency Sunday for Lake and Napa counties, an order that follows an earlier one the governor made for the Butte fire.

Earlier, the state Office of Emergency Services announced that it obtained a Fire Management Assistance Grant overnight from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for Lake and Napa counties that allows agencies fighting the blaze to recover costs from the fire.

The Rough fire in the mountains east of Fresno continues to be the largest active fire in the state with 130,000 acres burned.

That fire has swept through areas that contain several ancient and iconic sequoia trees, including the General Grant tree, second largest in the world, and the Boole Tree, sixth largest in the world.

Both trees, however, are reported safe.

The fire, centered in Kings Canyon east of Fresno, was reported 31 percent contained Sunday morning. Nearly 3,000 firefighters are involved.

The lightning-caused fire has been burning since July 31, and Schwarber said the fire � like the Butte and Valley fires � has been spreading faster than computer modeling forecasts projected.

“The country is bone dry, and we’ve had triple-digit hot weather,” Schwarber said. “We have dry, dead super-flammable fuel.”

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