MIDDLETOWN, Calif. -- Two California wildfires overtook several Northern California towns, destroying more than 480 homes and sending residents fleeing Sunday on highways lined with buildings, guardrails and cars still in flames.
Authorities said a wildfire that overtook several Northern California towns has killed at least one person and destroyed more than 400 homes and businesses.
A California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, spokesman released the tally Sunday evening as firefighters continue to battle the out-of-control blaze north of San Francisco in Lake County.
Lynn Valentine said officials confirmed one fatality, though she had no immediate information on the deceased.
She said the fire has destroyed 400 homes, two apartment complexes and 10 businesses. Most of the destruction occurred in the communities of Middletown and Hidden Valley Lake, as well as homes along a shuttered highway.
The devastation comes after a separate wildfire to the southeast destroyed at least 81 homes.
The rate at which the Lake County fire spread, jumping from 0.6 square mile about 1:30 p.m. Saturday to 62.5 square miles by Sunday morning, was astonishing, said Veronica Barclay, a Cal Fire spokesman.
"It's moving incredibly fast," she said. "It's very dry due to the ongoing drought and there is just a lot of fuel up here."
Residents streamed from Middletown on Sunday morning and had to dodge smoldering utility poles, downed power lines and fallen trees as they drove through billowing smoke.
Whole blocks of houses burned in parts of Middletown, where firefighters were driving around flaming utility poles to put out spot fires Sunday afternoon. On the west side of town, house after house was burned to their foundations, with only charred appliances and twisted metal garage doors still recognizable.
The blaze came upon Ron Clark, 48, and his mother, Carol, 70, so quickly that the two were forced to flee their home on Gifford Springs Road in the community of Cobb with their two dogs, Marley and Sly, as 50-foot flames consumed large pine trees on either side of the road.
"The pines were exploding. The flames were close to the highway and they were huge," he said. "It was unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it. By then it was get out or get burned. If we hadn't left when we did, this story wouldn't be told."
The Clarks initially ended up at the Twin Pines Casino in Middletown, but were forced to leave as the fire grew closer. They would be directed from shelter to shelter throughout the night until they ended up at the Napa County Fairgrounds in Calistoga, where hundreds of evacuees spent the night in tents, recreational vehicles and on cots.
Merna and Michael Scott, both 68, nearly got stuck in their home on Main Street in Middletown on Saturday night. Merna uses a wheelchair and Michael uses a walker, and neither drives, so getting out proved complicated.
"We could see flames all around our house, but we were just trying to hold out," Merna Scott said.
"We've never been in a situation like that," Michael Scott added. "We called 911 and asked them if there was a mandatory evacuation and they said 'Hell yeah, get out!'"
Wind gusts that reached up to 30 mph sent embers raining down on homes and made it hard for firefighters to stop the Lake County blaze from advancing, Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said.
More than 1,000 firefighters were dispatched to the blaze, he said. Four firefighters who are members of a helicopter crew were injured Saturday while battling the flames. They remained hospitalized in stable condition Sunday, Berlant said.
People were ordered Sunday to evacuate a stretch along California 281, including Clear Lake Riviera, a town with about 3,000 residents, Cal Fire said.
George Escalona said parts of Middletown, including his home, have burned to the ground. In some areas of town "there is nothing but burned houses, burned cars," he said, adding that he had nothing left but the clothes he was wearing.
The 78-square-mile fire started Saturday afternoon and rapidly chewed through brush and trees parched from several years of drought, Cal Fire said. Entire towns as well as residents along a 35-mile stretch of highway were evacuated. Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday declared a state of emergency to free up resources.
The order mobilizes various state resources, including the California Guard, to help.
Gary Kraus, a former fire chief and now a Calistoga city councilman, said a fire in this area of the state would be as dangerous as one anywhere in Southern California because of winding roads and thicker pine growth that makes fires prone to "spotting," or jumping ahead of containment lines.
"It will be an absolute miracle if we don't start hearing about fatalities up there," Kraus said. "You get heart attacks, accidents in cars, because this fire came through so quick."
More fires break out
Brown had already declared a state of emergency for a separate 101-square-mile wildfire about 70 miles southeast of Sacramento that has destroyed at least 81 homes and 51 outbuildings in Amador and Calaveras counties and turned the grassy, tree-studded Sierra Nevada foothills an eerie white.
Fire officials had earlier counted 86 homes destroyed, but issued the new figure Sunday morning. Crews have increased containment on that blaze to 25 percent.
The fire, which broke out on Wednesday and is being called the Butte Fire, was threatening about 6,400 more buildings.
A fire that broke out near the town of Coarsegold in the Sierra foothills prompted a mandatory evacuation order Sunday afternoon.
A California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman said the fire began around 3:40 p.m. Saturday and has burned at least 10 acres.
The Madera County sheriff's office evacuated an unknown number of residents along a rural road near State Route 41. Coarsegold, which is home to approximately 1,840 people, is on the route from Fresno to Yosemite National Park.
In Fresno County, the largest of 13 wildfires in the state continued to march westward as firefighters increased the areas of their backfires to try to stop the weeks-long advancement, fire spokesman Dave Schmitt said. The fire, sparked by lightning on July 31, has charred 203 square miles and was 31 percent contained Sunday, the U.S. Forest Service said.
Firefighters have maintained a precautionary line around Grant Grove, an ancient grove of giant sequoia trees, and set prescribed burns to keep the flames from overrunning it. Some fire came through the area but it hasn't done much harm, fire spokesman Frank Mosbacher told the Fresno Bee.
The grove is named for the towering General Grant tree that stands 268 feet tall. There are dozens of sequoia groves in the Sierra Nevada, and some trees are 3,000 years old.
Information for this article was contributed by Ellen Knickmeyer, Olga R. Rodriguez and Eric Risberg of The Associated Press; by Lee Romney, Paige St. John, Bettina Boxall and Shelby Grad of the Los Angeles Times; by Evan Sernoffsky and Kale Williams of the San Francisco Chronicle; and by Ian Lovett and Ashley Southall of The New York Times.
A Section on 09/14/2015