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Lindsey Bever
General appointment reporter national covering and breaking news
Eli Rosenberg
General appointment reporter national covering and breaking news
Homes were swallowed by the raging flames.
Cars and trucks were left melting in the road.
And thousands of residents of a Northern California town fled for their lives at the Camp Fire roared across California's Butte County, about 90 miles north of the state's capital, Sacramento.
By Thursday night, Cal Fire Capt. Scott McLean said the blaze had burned about 30 square miles, destroying a number of structures.
"Pretty much the community of Paradise is destroyed," McLean told reporters, according to the Associated Press. "It's that kind of devastation."
The troubling statistics: By Friday morning, nearly 110 square miles had burned in a fire that was 5 percent contained, with 15,000 structures and scores of people still under mandatory evacuation orders, officials said. Officials said that 52,000 people have been evacuated in Northern California around the Camp Fire.
Officials said a news conference that the fast-moving fire also injured an undisclosed number of residents and two firefighters. Acting governor Gavin Newsom (D), who is filling the role while Gov. Jerry Brown is out of state, declared a state of emergency. Officials said that they had heard reports of fatalities but that they could not
Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Office of Emergency Services, said during a conference on Friday that the magnitude of the destruction in California is "unbelievable" and "heartbreaking."
"We know that there have been enough injuries," he told reporters, "and we are still accounting for that."
[‘The whole place was in flames’: Residents flee as Camp Fire tears through California towns]
Paradise, a town of 27,000, was evacuated, as were the nearby communities of Magalia, Pulga, Concow, Butte Valley, and Butte Creek Canyon. Officials Said Friday morning that an evacuation order had been issued for Stirling City and Inskip, as the National Weather Service warned that strong winds and low humidity could create "critical fire weather conditions."
Landsat 8 imagery composite showing the location of the Fire Camp near Paradise, Calif. (.)
As the wildfire broke out early on Thursday, Colton Percifield, 20, said that he was a friend of a house in his home. Spot fires soon encroached on the home.
"Within half an hour, the whole place was in flames," he said. By 8:20 a.m., the house was burning.
Percifield left in his pickup truck for an emergency gathering place outside town, finding himself on an empty road with the fire a swelling inferno on both sides. A video he took captures the hellacious conditions he described: thick smoke and heat surrounding the truck as the temperature rose inside, while giant sparks and flames licked the roof over his head in nearly pitch-black darkness. At one point, a tree branch fell on his car, smashing his windshield and denting his hood.
Percifield says it's going to be a few times in the low-visibility conditions and it's going to be a reality. He said that he was talking to someone about it.
Shary Bernacett, who has a mobile home park in Paradise with her husband, told USA Today that the couple had urged residents to flee town.
"My husband tried his best to get everybody out," she said. "The whole hill's on fire. God help us! "
Resident Whitney Vaughn said, "Many people are driving their babies and kids."
She wrote on Facebook that "someone ruled our vehicle with them, trying to get through," according to CNN. There were no firefighters in sight. I am hoping all these people made it out. "
[Fast-moving wildfires threaten homes in Southern California, forcing thousands to flee]
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles south in Ventura County, where residents were still reeling from a mass shooting that left 12 people dead, more wildfires broke out, forcing thousands to evacuate.
The fire in Butte County started Thursday near Pulga, a small community surrounded by the Plumas National Forest, officials said. The first firefighters to arrive found 10 to 15 acres burning. Wind gusts of nearly 50 mph helped speed the fire's growth.
Officials warned that the situation could change rapidly. Cal Fire Chief Darren Read told reporters at the time that an estimated 1,500 first responders were on the scene or en route, as well as 300 fire engines, 20 bulldozers, aircraft and other support vehicles.
According to Sacramento Bee reporter Ryan Lillis, about 60 to 70 people were awaiting emergency evacuation at Walgreen's in Paradise.
"Fire crews asking for nozzles to get them out," he reported. A hospital, Adventist Health Feather River, was evacuated before it caught fire. The hospital's parent company could not be reached for comment.
Evacuation routes were clogged with people attempting to blaze the growing blaze, the Sacramento Bee reported, and first responders expressed concern about whether they could escape.
"Lt. Al Smith of the Butte County Sheriff 's Office told the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday.
Many took part in their distress, showing apocalyptic imagery of smoke-filled skies and horizon lines of neon orange in which is becoming a familiar ritual in California. Others flooded Twitter with messages about missing family members.
"My mother is trapped with other drivers on Pearson Rd in Paradise with houses burning nearby," one person wrote on Twitter. "People leaving vehicles and running with children and pets."
Schools in the county were closed Friday, as were roadways. Officials warned that the blaze could reach the city of Chico, a college town of about 93,000 about six miles from Paradise. The university said to be prepared to close Friday "out of an abundance of caution."
In addition, smoke from the fire wafted westward to the San Francisco Bay area, satellite imagery showed, prompting a local air quality warning.
The National Weather Service has been predicted to be dangerous in California because of Santa Ana's winds, which are being reduced by California's north-to-south-oriented mountain slopes. Red-flag warnings for "critical fire weather conditions" were not only for the Sacramento Valley but also for Central and Southern California. Gusts of 50 mph were expected in many locations.
About 23.4 million Californians were under red-flag warnings Thursday into early Friday, after which the winds are expected to ease, giving responders improving conditions for battling the blaze.
California has experienced debilitating fires of unprecedented regularity in the past few years. In August, the Mendocino Complex Fire became the largest wildfire ever recorded in the state, eventually burning more than 400,000 acres. The previous record was set less than 280,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. In October 2017, some 21 wildfires burned nearly 95,000 acres and 7,000 buildings in Sonoma and Napa counties in the heart of California's wine country, killing 40 people.
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