Campfire destroys paradise as California fire fights break out in Butte County

November 9 at 1:40 pm [19659004] Houses were swallowed by

Cars and trucks melted on the road

. Thousands of residents of an isolated northern California town fled for their lives when the campfire erupted in Butte County, California, about 90 km north of the city. 39; State. capital, Sacramento.

On Thursday, Scott Fire, captain of Cal Cal, said that the fire had burned about 30 square miles, destroying countless structures.

"Virtually all of the Paradise community is destroyed," McLean told reporters, according to the Associated Press. "It's that kind of devastation."

Disturbing statistics: Friday morning, near 110 square miles had burned in a fire that was controlled to 5%, with 15,000 structures threatened and dozens of people still under control. evacuation, said officials. Officials said 52,000 people had been evacuated in northern California around the camp's fire.

At a press conference, officials said that the fire, which was moving rapidly, had also injured an unspecified number of residents and two firefighters. Acting Governor Gavin Newsom (D), who fulfills this role while Governor Jerry Brown is on the sidelines of the state, said the state of emergency. Officials said they heard of death but did not have access to the affected areas to confirm this information.

Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Emergency Services Bureau, said at a press conference Friday that the scale of the destruction in California is "Incredible" and "heartbreaking".

"We know that there were wounded people and we know that there were losses of life," he told reporters, "and we always make it account".

[‘The whole place was in flames’: Residents flee as Camp Fire tears through California towns]

Paradise, a city of 27,000 retired residents, was evacuated, along with the communities of Magalia, Pulga, Concow, Butte Valley, and Butte Creek Canyon. Authorities declared Friday morning that an eviction order had also been issued for Stirling and Inskip, while the National Meteorological Service had warned that high winds and a low rate of The humidity could create "critical fire weather conditions".

As the forest fire broke out early Thursday, Colton Percifield, 20, said that He woke up at a friend's house in Concow to find smoke on the outside. Fires quickly invaded the house.

"In less than half an hour, the whole place was on fire," he said. At 8:20, the house was in flames.

Percifield left in his van to go to an emergency rally outside the city, ending up on a deserted road with a hellish fire on both sides. A video that he filmed describes the hellish conditions that he described: a thick smoke and heat around the truck as the temperature went up inside, while giant sparks and flames licked the roof above his head in almost black darkness. At one point, a tree branch fell on his car, breaking his windshield and giving him a hood shot.

Percifield reported that he had left the road a few times in low visibility conditions, but that he had eventually gone to a pre-maintained residents to bademble in case of fire. Shary Bernacett, who runs a mobile home park in Paradise with her husband, told USA Today that the couple had urged residents to flee the city.

"My husband did his best to get everyone out," she said. "The whole hill is on fire. God help us!

Resident Whitney Vaughn said people are leaving their city by car, many abandoning their vehicles, "running with their babies and their children."

She wrote on Facebook "Someone hit our vehicle with theirs, trying to get through," according to CNN. "There were no firefighters in sight. I hope all these people managed to get out of it.

[Fast-moving wildfires threaten homes in Southern California, forcing thousands to flee]

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles south of Ventura County, where locals were still in shock from a shootout that killed 12 people, sparked new fires, forcing thousands of people to evacuate.

The fire in Butte County began Thursday near Pulga, a small community surrounded by the Plumas National Forest, officials said. The first firefighters arrived found 10 to 15 acres in flames. Gusts of wind of nearly 20 km / h accelerated the growth of the fire.

The authorities have warned that the situation could change quickly. Cal's fire chief, Darren Read, told reporters at the time that some 1,500 first responders were on the scene or on the road, as well as 300 firefighters, 20 bulldozers, airplanes and airplanes. other support vehicles.

According to Sacramento Bee reporter Ryan Lillis, about 60 to 70 people were waiting for an emergency evacuation in a Walgreen's Paradise

"Firefighter crews asking for buses to get them out " he reported . A hospital, Adventist Health Feather River, was evacuated before the fire. The parent company of the hospital could not be contacted for comment.

Evacuation routes were crowded by people trying to flee the growing fire, reported the Sacramento Bee, and first responders worried about their possibility of s & # 39; 39; escape.

"I can". "Think of a safe place at the moment," the San Francisco Chronicle told Lt. Al Smith of the Butte County Sheriff's Office on Thursday.

Many protesters turned to social media to show their distress, showing apocalyptic images of smoky skies. and orange neon horizon lines in what's becoming a familiar California ritual. Others have flooded Twitter with messages about missing family members.

"My mother is stuck with other drivers on Pearson Rd, in Paradise, with houses burning nearby," wrote a person on Twitter . "People leave vehicles and run with children and pets."

The county schools were closed on Friday, as were the roadways. Officials warned that the fire could reach the city of Chico, a university town of about 93,000 residents located about six miles from paradise. The university has announced its intention to close Friday "as a precaution".

In addition, the smoke from the fire was directed westward to the San Francisco Bay Area, showed satellite images, thus causing a warning on the quality of the local air.

The National Weather Service predicted dangerous weather conditions for fires in California due to winds from Santa Ana, which blow from the east and accelerate along the north-south facing mountain slopes. Red-flag warnings of "critical weather conditions in the event of a fire" were in effect not only for the Sacramento Valley but also for central and southern California. Gusts of 50 mph were expected in many places.

Approximately 23.4 million Californians were under red flag warnings from Thursday to early Friday, after which winds would be eased, giving stakeholders better conditions to fight against.

California has experienced debilitating fires of unprecedented regularity in recent years. In August, the Mendocino complex fire became the largest ever forest fire in the state, burning more than 400,000 acres. The previous record was set less than a year ago in another catastrophic fire that devastated more than 280,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. In October 2017, some 21 fires burned 40 people and killed 7,000 buildings in Sonoma and Napa counties, in the heart of California's wine region.