WEED, Calif. (AP) — A fast-moving wildfire in rural Northern California injured several people Friday, destroyed several homes and forced thousands of residents to flee, jamming roads at the start of a sweltering of Labor Day week.
The so-called Mill Fire started on or near the property of Roseburg Forest Products, a plant that manufactures veneers. It quickly burned homes, pushed by 35 mph (56 km/h) winds.
Annie Peterson said she was sitting on the porch of her home near the Roseburg facility when “all of a sudden we heard a big boom and all that smoke was rolling toward us.”
Very quickly, his house and a dozen others were on fire. She said members of her church helped evacuate her and her son, who is motionless. He said the scene of smoke and flames looked like “the world was ending”.
Suzi Brady, a spokeswoman for Cal Fire, said several people were injured.
Allison Hendrickson, spokeswoman for Dignity Health North State Hospitals, said two people were taken to Mercy Medical Center Mount Shasta. One was in stable condition and the other was taken to UC Davis Medical Center, which has a burn unit.
California is suffering from a prolonged drought and now a brutal heat wave that is taxing the power grid as people try to stay cool. Residents have been asked for three consecutive days to conserve energy during the afternoon and evening hours when energy consumption is highest.
Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the past three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. In the past five years, California has experienced the largest and most destructive wildfires in the state’s history.
Southern California saw two large wildfires break out earlier this week. The last of these evacuation orders were lifted around the time the mill fire started at noon Friday. The flames spread quickly and about 7,500 people were under evacuation orders covering the small town of Weed and the surrounding area, which is about 250 miles (402 kilometers) north of San Francisco.
Olga Hood heard the fire on her scanner and stepped onto the front porch of her Weed home to see smoke billowing over the next hill.
With the notorious gusts sweeping through the city at the base of Mount Shasta, he didn’t wait for an evacuation order. She packed her documents, her medicine and little else, her granddaughter, Cynthia Jones, said.
“With the wind in Weed, everything moves quickly. It’s bad,” Jones said by phone from his home in Medford, Ore. “It’s not unusual to have gusts of 50 to 60 mph on a normal day. I was blown into a stream as a child.”
Hood’s home of nearly three decades was spared a fire last year and the devastating Boles fire that swept through the city eight years ago, destroying more than 160 buildings, mostly homes.
Hood cried as he talked about the fire at a relative’s house in the town of Granada, Jones said. She was unable to gather photos that had been important to her late husband.
Willo Balfrey, 82, an artist from Lake Shastina, said she was painting Friday afternoon when her grandson, who is a member of the California Highway Patrol, called her to warn her of the flames. they spread quickly.
“He said, ‘Don’t stay, get your computer, get what you need and get out of the house now.’ It’s coming your way. So I did,” Balfrey said.
He grabbed a suitcase full of important documents, as well as water and his computer, iPhone, and chargers, and headed out the door.
“I’ve come to the philosophy that if I have all the paperwork, what’s in the house isn’t that important,” he said.
He stopped to pick up his neighbor and they drove to a church parking lot in Montague, where about 40 other vehicles were also parked.
Rebecca Taylor, director of communications for Springfield, Ore.-based Roseburg Forest Products, said it’s unclear whether the fire started near or on the company’s property. He said he burned a large vacant building on the edge of the company’s property. All employees were evacuated and no injuries were reported, he said.
The plant employs 145 people, although not all were on duty at the time, Taylor said.
“We are devastated to see this fire affect the community in this way,” he said.
In Southern California, firefighters were making progress Friday against two large wildfires.
Containment of the route fire along Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles increased to 37 percent and remained at just over 8 square miles (21 square kilometers), Cal Fire said in a statement . On Wednesday, seven firefighters working in triple-digit temperatures had to be taken to hospitals to be treated for heat illness. All were released.
In eastern San Diego County, the Border 32 Fire was contained to just under 7 square miles (18 square kilometers) and containment increased to 20 percent. More than 1,500 people had to evacuate the area near the US-Mexico border when the fire broke out on Wednesday. All evacuations were lifted Friday afternoon.
Two people were hospitalized with burns. Three homes and seven other buildings were destroyed.
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Rodriguez reported from San Francisco, where Associated Press reporter Janie Har contributed. AP reporters Stefanie Dazio and Brian Melley in Los Angeles also contributed.