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Stunning photos show a California firefighter saving an American flag despite being surrounded by huge flames from the Dixie forest fire that razed much of a historic Gold Rush town overnight.
The unidentified firefighter was pictured carefully loading the star-spangled banner and a pole he was attached to from a burning house in Greenville on Wednesday evening – with a huge fireball filling the frame behind him.
The patriotic rescue came as flames “made their way through the street,” wrote photographer Josh Edelson, who also took numerous other images of the wildfire that he said “ravaged and destroyed most of Greenville “.
Other images showed many buildings engulfed in the biggest wildfire in the Golden State that ravaged much of the northern Sierra Nevada town on Wednesday, dating from the gold rush. and has buildings over a century old.
“I would say the majority of downtown Greenville is completely destroyed,” photographer Stuart Palley tweeted, who also shared footage of the devastation – including a leaned lamppost that melted in the fire.
“My heart is broken for this beautiful little town,” he wrote.
The three-week blaze, which blackened over 435 square miles, appears to have been brought under control until gusts of 40 mph and dry vegetation fueled it again, officials said.
Late Wednesday, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office warned the town’s 800 or so residents: “If you are still in the Greenville area you are in imminent danger and you MUST go now !!”
“If you stay, rescuers may not be able to help you,” the department warned.
“We did everything we could,” said firefighters spokesman Mitch Matlow of tackling the devastating blaze. “Sometimes that’s just not enough.”
Red flag weather conditions of high heat, low humidity and gusty winds are expected to continue to threaten through Thursday evening.
The trees, grass and brush were so dry that “if an embers land, you’re pretty much guaranteed to start a new fire,” said Matlow.
Similar risky weather was expected in southern California, where advisories and heat warnings were issued for inland valleys, mountains and deserts for much of the week.
With post wires
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