AP News Guide: Fires break out at both ends of California and kill 11 people

PARADISE, Calif. (AP) – Devastating wildfires on both sides of California pushed into a new territory on Saturday as tired firefighters struggled to evacuate residents and endanger fires. have already claimed the lives of 11 people, destroyed thousands of homes and burned hundreds of square kilometers.

The three fires began Thursday – the largest in northern California, where a town of 27,000 in the Sierra Nevada was destroyed by a very fast fire that quickly became the most destructive ever recorded. In southern California, two fires were burning in the drought-stricken canyons and hills, north and west of downtown Los Angeles.

Here is a closer look:

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

The fire that quickly submerged and cremated the historic city of Paradise, located in northern California, reached 404 square kilometers and destroyed more than 6,700 buildings, the forest and protection department said Saturday. the fires of California. More than 50,000 people have evacuated the area and at least nine of them have been killed. One of those who died was found inside a house and others inside cars and outside vehicles or homes.

Officials said that good weather allowed them to gain ground. The winds were expected to return Saturday night and cross Lake Oroville to the south, threatening Oroville, a city of 19,000 inhabitants.

Residents of four small communities southeast of Paradise – Berry Creek, Bush Creek, Mountain House and Bloomer Hill – have been ordered to evacuate on Saturday.

Authorities said more than 3,000 firefighters were fighting in the blaze that began Thursday in the hills near Paradise, about 289 km northeast of San Francisco. Pacific Gas & Electric Company told state control authorities that it had encountered a problem on an electrical transmission line near the fire site a few minutes before the start from the fire. The company said it later found damage to a transmission tower on the line.

The utility said it would cooperate with any investigation, although a spokesman said Friday that the information was preliminary and that the cause of the fire had not yet been determined.

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CALIFORNIA SOUTH

While the winds temporarily eased Saturday, fire officials assessed the damage of a forest fire that burned in the affluent enclaves and working-class suburbs near Los Angeles. Los Angeles County sheriff chief John Benedict said the bodies were found in a sparsely populated stretch of Mulholland Highway in Malibu, without giving any other details.

Officials said 282 square kilometers had burned north and east of the city, including Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars.

More than 250,000 people were evacuated following the fires in Hill and Woolsey. According to officials, at least 150 homes have been destroyed, but this number is expected to increase as firefighters search cities, including Thousand Oaks and Malibu.

The officials took advantage of the calm to try to contain the fire before the wind resumed Sunday.

Friday night, the advance of the small fire on the hill was stopped, but the Woolsey fire continued to grow, the flames raging from Thousand Oaks to the south, passing through the northwest of the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, and heading to the Pacific Ocean.

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TWAG TRAGEDIES

Just days after an armed man killed 12 people and himself at a country music bar in Thousand Oaks, California, many grieving residents were urged to evacuate their occupants.

Some evacuees found shelter in a teenage center a day earlier where grieving family members gathered to hear about the plight of loved ones at Borderline Bar and Grill. where 28-year-old Marine Ian David Long wore an attack that shook a city considered one of the safest in the country.

"It's like 'Welcome to hell'," said Cynthia Ball, a resident, about the disasters that have followed one another.

Three-quarters of the city's population of 130,000, about 64 km from Los Angeles, was under the command of the evacuation, which probably included people affected by the shooting, said the mayor of Thousand Oaks, Andy Fox.

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CELEBRITIES FLEE

Hollywood celebrities were forced to flee while a devastating forest fire in southern California had ravaged their homes in the Malibu coastal community.

Actor Martin Sheen told Los Angeles affiliate Fox KTTV that the fire was the worst he had ever seen and that he expected at that time. that his house be destroyed.

The TV channel found the actor "West Wing" after his son, Charlie Sheen, tweeted Friday night that he was not able to contact his parents. Martin Sheen urged his family to let him know that his wife, Janet, and he were safe and planned to sleep in their car at the beach.

Alyssa Milano tweeted Saturday that she was waiting for the fate of her home. On Friday, she said that she had gotten help to evacuate her horses and that her children were safe, but that her house was "in danger".

"I'm really sorry and my heart is with everyone affected by this terrible disaster," she tweeted Saturday.

Caitlyn Jenner, whose house perched on top of the hill seemed untouched, was also taken by an Associated Press photographer on Saturday morning. Jenner's representative noted that the Olympic gold medalist would not know the extent of the damage done to the house until she was allowed to return.

The entire Malibu coastal enclave has been ordered to flee, along with Jenner's former daughter-in-law, Kim Kardashian West, Lady Gaga and Guillermo del Toro, among other forced celebrities. to abandon their homes.

The Woolsey fire also destroyed the home of director "Dr. Strange" Scott Derrickson and the historic Paramount Ranch where "Westworld" from HBO and many other shows were filmed.

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Andrew Dalton of Los Angeles; Jonathan J. Cooper in Malibu; Lynn Elber in Los Angeles; Paul Elias and Gillian Flaccus in Paradise; Don Thompson in Chico; Olga R. Rodriguez and Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco; and Tammy Webber in Chicago.