Crews fight over forest fires in Northern California

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Firefighters fought on Saturday to overthrow a wildfire that forced the closure of a highway in northern California.

Delta Fire has burned more than 31,000 acres (12,545 hectares) in the Cascade Mountains since it erupted Wednesday in a forest canyon along the Sacramento River, about 402 km north of San Francisco.

Although the containment of the fire, measuring the progress made in cutting the buffer zones around the perimeter of the fire to halt its spread, remained at zero, the crews made gains by clearing dry brush beyond the edge of attack.

The fire spread rapidly through drought-stricken pine forests, thick dead and moribund woods that were ravaged by bark beetle infestations.

The undergrowth is removed with a combination of bulldozers and hand tools, as well as controlled burn operations, said Captain Brandon Vaccaro, spokesman for the Delta Fire Incident Command.

"We are doing a lot of work and making a lot of progress, but this progress is not on the brink of fire," Vaccaro told Reuters by phone. "We remove the fuel in front of the fire."

Much of the effort has also focused on protecting scattered homes and small communities in the sparsely populated fire zone, but an unknown number of homes have been destroyed, he added.

Vaccaro said that about 300 people were under the mandatory evacuation orders in Shasta and Trinity counties. Further north, an evacuation warning was in effect for the town of Dunsmuir, advising 1,600 residents to be ready to flee at any time.

The fire has also caused significant disturbances in the area. On Wednesday, flames crossed Interstate 5, chasing a number of truckers out of their vehicles before the flames muddled their abandoned appliances, although no serious injuries were reported. .

A 72-kilometer (45-mile) stretch of I-5, a key north-south all-state highway, has remained closed since, requiring detours of up to 120 miles (193 km), said officials.

Communities in Shasta County are still recovering from a devastating fire that killed eight people and cremated hundreds of homes in and around Redding.

The California wildfire threat may intensify next week with the forecast of a state-wide heat wave.