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A wildfire ravaged a historic northern California mountain town on Wednesday, leaving much of the downtown area to ashes. As the fire escalated, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office posted a Facebook message warning the town’s 800 or so residents: “You are in imminent danger and you MUST go now!”
The Dixie Fire raged through the town of Greenville in the northern Sierra Nevada, destroying a gas station, hotel, bar and other structures in the town, which dates from the era of the gold rush in California and has buildings over a century old.
It left “doomsday scenes in all directions,” CBS News’s Bradley Blackburn said.
“We did everything we could,” said firefighter spokesman Mitch Matlow. “Sometimes it’s just not enough.”
The three-week blaze was the largest wildfire in the state and had blackened well over 435 square miles, burning dozens of homes before it made its new run. Earlier this week, some 5,000 firefighters had progressed on the blaze, saving homes under threat, bulldozing pockets of unburned vegetation and managing to surround a third of the perimeter.
More fire trucks and bulldozers have been ordered to bolster the fight, Matlow said.
On Wednesday, the blaze spread over thousands of acres and an additional 4,000 people were ordered to evacuate, bringing nearly 26,500 people to several counties under evacuation orders, he said. .
Red flag weather conditions of high heat, low humidity and wind gusts in the afternoon and evening are expected to pose a continuing threat through Thursday evening.
The Dixie Fire and several others in that part of the state “could see wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph for at least 6 hours” Thursday. Some might see these gusts of wind for up to 10 hours before things calm down a bit Thursday night, ”CBS News weather producer David Parkinson said.
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.
The blaze ran parallel to an area of canyon that served as a chimney, making it so hot it created huge columns of pyrocumulus smoke. These clouds bring chaotic winds, making a fire “critically erratic”, so it is difficult to predict the direction of growth, he added.
Noah Berger / AP
About 150 miles to the west, the lightning-triggered McFarland Blaze threatened isolated homes along the Trinity River in Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The blaze was only 5% contained after burning nearly 25 square miles of drought-stricken vegetation.
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.
This fire season is set to be the worst on record in California, CBS News’s Blackburn points out.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday: “Five hundred and eighty thousand acres burned. Put that in perspective: last year it was around 260,000 acres, so more than double the acres burned so far since start of the year, and we’re just, you know, we’re just getting started. “
Heat waves and the historic drought associated with climate change have made forest fires more difficult to fight in the American West. Scientists say climate change has made the region much hotter and drier over the past 30 years and will continue to make weather conditions more extreme and forest fires more frequent and destructive.
More than 20,000 firefighters and support personnel were battling 97 large active wildfires covering 2,919 square miles in 13 US states, the National Interagency Fire Center said.
The CBSN documentary “Bring your own brigade“captures the horror and heroism of the deadliest wildland fire week in California history and explores the causes and solutions of a global crisis that is literally burning our world. Watch” Bring Your Own Brigade “in theaters from August 6, and stream on the CBS News or Paramount + app on August 20.
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