Wildfire burns 100 homes in Northern California

WEED, Calif. – A fire driven by fierce winds raced through a small town near the Oregon border on Monday, burning a church to the ground, damaging or destroying 100 homes and prompting evacuation orders for at least 1,500 people, authorities said.

This tiny town near the base of Mount Shasta in the Cascade Mountains was under siege from a 350-acre blaze that surged toward and through it through timberland.

The town sawmill caught fire, and a Catholic church was destroyed.

The blaze erupted at around 1:30 p.m. south of Weed, a scenic town of nearly 3,000 located about 50 miles south of the Oregon border and about halfway between San Francisco and Portland.

“It was fast-moving, fanned by incredibly gusty winds of up to 40 mph,” state fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said. “It went into and around the town.”

Blowing embers started spot fires as much as a half-mile ahead of the fire front, and evacuations were called for Weed and the outskirt subdivisions of Carrick and Lake Shastina, authorities said.

About 1,500 to 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate, said Allison Giannini, spokeswoman for the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department.

More than 800 firefighters, aided by aircraft, fought the flames.

The winds began to ease late in the day, and the fire’s pace slowed. By dusk it was 15 percent contained but still advancing, state fire spokeswoman Suzi Brady said.

“We’re hoping that the winds are going to calm down tonight,” she said.

The fire started east of town and mowed through the area.

“Black land. Very flat. A lot of trees burned; a lot of sad, scared folks,” Brady said.

Interstate 5, the main freeway between California and Oregon, was closed in the area.

Meanwhile, firefighters were trying to gain better access to two raging wildfires that have forced hundreds to evacuate their homes, including one near a lakeside resort that destroyed nearly two-dozen structures.

In Northern California, firefighters spent the day working to build and reinforce containment lines in steep terrain near a foothill community south of an entrance to Yosemite National Park in central California. Authorities there evacuated about 900 residents from 400 homes, Madera County sheriff’s spokeswoman Erica Stuart said.

The blaze has burned a less than a square mile and destroyed 20 homes, CalFire spokesman Dennis Mathisen said. The fire started off a road outside of Oakhurst, near Yosemite, and spread to Bass Lake, a popular destination.

More than 300 firefighters were on the scene of the blaze, which is 20 percent contained and has not affected the park, Mathisen said.

Farther north, a wildfire about 60 miles east of Sacramento forced the evacuation of 133 homes. El Dorado County sheriff’s officials said residents of an additional 406 homes were being told to prepare to flee.

More than 800 firefighters are battling the blaze, which started in a remote area Saturday but exploded Sunday when it reached a canyon full of thick, dry brush. It grew to nearly 13 1/2 square miles and was 5 percent contained.