Fires in California rage; 1 fireman dies

Firefighters respond to a fire Friday along Morgan Valley Road near Lower Lake, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency as wildfires burn in woodlands across California.
Firefighters respond to a fire Friday along Morgan Valley Road near Lower Lake, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency as wildfires burn in woodlands across California.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. -- Blazes raging in forests and woodlands across California have taken the life of a firefighter and forced hundreds of people to flee as crews continue to battle the flames from the air and the ground.

Twenty-three large fires, many sparked by lightning strikes, were burning Saturday across Northern California, said Daniel Berlant, spokesman for the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Some 9,000 firefighters were working to subdue them, an effort made difficult by several years of drought.

"The conditions and fire behavior we're seeing at 10 in the morning is typically what we'd see in late afternoon in late August and September," said Nick Schuler, a division chief with the Forestry and Fire Protection Department. "But because of the dry conditions, because of the drought-stricken vegetation accompanied by the steep terrain and winds, we're seeing fire activity that's abnormal for this time of year."

The fires prompted Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency and activate the California National Guard to help with disaster recovery.

Berlant said firefighters were hoping cooler weather might help them this weekend, but there was also the threat that lingering thunderstorms could create more lightning strikes like those that ignited several of the fires.

Officials said Saturday that a firefighter killed by a blaze in Northern California was scouting the area when he became trapped by wind-stoked flames.

U.S. Forest Service firefighter David Ruhl was driving on a Modoc National Forest road Thursday. The fire suddenly grew and trapped him, information officer Ken Sandusky said.

"He was trying to develop a plan of attack," Sandusky said.

Ruhl of Rapid City, S.D., had been on temporary assignment since June in California, where he was an assistant fire management officer for the Big Valley Ranger District of the Modoc National Forest.

Ruhl was one of several firefighters exploring the area when the small fire suddenly expanded. An investigation is underway to determine what happened, Sandusky said.

Crews fighting the blaze lost communication with Ruhl on Thursday evening. His body was recovered Friday.

By Saturday, the blaze about 100 miles south of the Oregon border, had burned 2.8 square miles and was 5 percent contained.

The biggest fire in California was in the Lower Lake area north of San Francisco, where firefighters had to wade through thick smoke and flying embers to turn loose horses, goats and other livestock as their owners fled to safety.

The fast-moving fire had burned three homes by Friday and was threatening 450 other structures. Only 5 percent contained by Saturday, it had charred 35 square miles south of Clear Lake, a popular summer recreation spot.

At least 650 residents have been evacuated as the blaze raged in hills covered in dense brush and oak trees.

"We saw it behind our house. We saw the smoke pouring over. So we just started collecting stuff and we left, to find out later that everyone was evacuated out here," said resident Julie Flannery.

When she returned Friday, she found the family's two horses and one mule were gone. They hoped firefighters turned them loose so they could make their way to safety.

"The rest of this is just material stuff," she said. "The animals and the family is the most important."

Meanwhile, a woman was arrested in connection with a small fire near Groveland, a stop-off point for travelers headed to Yosemite National Park.

The 200-acre fire, about 20 miles from the park's entrance, was 45 percent contained Saturday, when all evacuations were lifted and residents were allowed to return.

Lisa Ann Vilmur was arrested Thursday night on allegations of recklessly causing a fire. She was jailed and her bail was set at $100,000 bail; it was not known if she had an attorney who could comment.

On Saturday, a wildfire that caused the evacuation of 200 homes in the central California community of Cascadel Woods was partially contained.

Authorities said a boy acknowledged starting the fire near Bass Lake while playing with a lighter to burn pine needles. The fire, which has been burning for several days, has grown to more than 6 square miles.

The region is under duress in another summer of record-breaking drought and heat. Washington state is well on track to surpass last year's wildfire season, its busiest on record.

Dozens of homes and thousands of acres have burned over the past few months -- in the rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula, in suburban communities on the edge of the wild lands, and in Walla Walla, where hundreds of firefighters are still battling a blaze on the western slopes of the Blue Mountains.

In Alaska, 399 fires burned in June. That was nearly double the number seen in the same month in 2004 -- considered to have been the state's worst fire year on record.

Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press and by Fernanda Santos of The New York Times.

A Section on 08/02/2015

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