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Nichoel Farris had lived on an apple farm in Greenville, California for four years with her husband, Paul. The farm, located in the High Sierra of Northern California, about 150 miles north of Sacramento, was where they grew sunflowers, raised chicks, rode horses, and grew apples. Only a heap of ash and blackened tree trunks remain.
The Dixie fire, driven by high winds, ravaged the town of Greenville during the gold rush on Wednesday night, destroying 75% of the town, according to federal fire officials.
“Our Hideaway property in Greenville has completely disappeared from #Dixiefire. Home, car, farm, contents, garden, bees, animals, cat… everything we loved so deeply. Our whole town burned down. I have never felt such grief for our normal life, ”Nichoel wrote on Facebook.
Dixie is California’s largest fire this year and the third largest on record in state history. As of Thursday evening, the three-week blaze reached 361,812 acres, a 25% expansion since it reached Greenville on Wednesday. As of Friday, the blaze had swept through 432,813 acres, increasing another 20% overnight and becoming the largest active blaze in the United States.
“If you are still in the Greenville area you are in imminent danger and you MUST go now !! Evacuate south to Quincy. If you stay, rescuers may not be able to help you, ”the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook on Wednesday.
Following a red flag warning, indicating that there is an increased risk of fire danger, the Farris evacuated, just hours after returning from their previous evacuation. This order had been lifted but quickly reinstated as the fire grew more and more out of control.
“We got off in our truck with our 3 dogs and [a] some suitcases. And everything else is ashes, ”Nichoel wrote on Facebook. “My mom’s handwriting birthday cards, Christmas decorations Trey made like [a] kid, the earrings I wore on my wedding day. The things you touch and feel the warm love of good memories.
Greenville, the largest city in Indian Valley, an area made up of four small towns, is rich in history. The Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce website offers a self-guided walking tour of Greenville and shows the various 19th and early 20th century buildings that once lined Main Street, including an old salon and stables.
The Thousand Residents have created a close-knit community where Nichoel remembers talking to his neighbors over his fence. Eva Gorman, owner of a Greenville store called Josefina Fine Knits, said the town was a place of mutual and strong character, where neighbors volunteered to move furniture, colorful flower baskets brightened the street main, and writers and musicians mingled with mechanics and chicken. Farmers.
The fire razed the area in less than half an hour. “It was like a huge tornado had passed through town. It burned this town down in about 25 minutes,” Greenville resident Jerry Thrall told People magazine.
“It’s my whole childhood,” Ryan Schramel, who grew up in the city and currently lives in Taylorsville, a town near the Indian Valley, told The New York Times. “It was tragic to just watch it all go up.”
The Dixie Fire is one of 107 major fires currently burning in the United States, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Twelve of them are located in California, where residents have faced months of drought, heat waves and are now on the verge of the worst fire season in state history.
The Dixie Fire began in the same area as the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in the United States this century, killing 85 people and destroying 11,000 homes.
Scientists say climate change, which has led to higher temperatures and drier conditions, will only make forest fires more extreme and more frequent.
Now the Farris are scrambling to find a new place to live. On Facebook, Nichoel asked his friends, family and community for help. “We lost everything in this horrible fire and need a place by next week. … We are broken and lost.
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