A 3 week old Wildfire Swallowed a little Northern California On Thursday, in dangerous weather, staff prepared to meet another explosive flame, the mountain city, which razed most of its historic city center and turned housing blocks to ashes.
This Dixie FireOn Wednesday, extremely dry vegetation and 40 mph (64 km/h) wind gusts swept the northern Sierra Nevada community in Greenville. Gas stations, churches, hotels, museums, and bars are the destroyed facilities in the town. The history can be traced back to the time of the California Gold Rush, where some wooden buildings are more than 100 years old.
The fire “burned down our entire city center. Our historic buildings, family homes, small businesses and our children’s schools were completely gone,” Pramas County Director Kevin Goss wrote on Facebook.
Plumas County Sheriff Tom Johns, a lifelong resident of Greenville, said that “more than” 100 homes and businesses were destroyed.
“My heart was crushed by what happened there,” he said.
“We have lost Greenville tonight,” U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who represents the region, said in an emotional Facebook video. “Just have nothing to say.”
On Wednesday, when explosions occurred in the north and east of the fire, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office issued an emergency warning online to approximately 800 residents of the town: “Your danger is imminent, you must leave immediately!”
A similar warning was issued on Thursday as the flames pushed southeast to another hilly community about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Greenville, Taylorsville.
In the northwest, workers are protecting houses in Chester. In several counties, thousands of residents received evacuation orders or warnings.
No injuries or deaths were reported immediately.
Artist and writer Margaret Elysia Garcia (Margaret Elysia Garcia), who has been waiting for the fire to extinguish in Southern California, watched a video of her office on fire in Greenville. She put every diary and a hand-edited novel she had written since the second grade on her grandfather’s roll-top desk.
“We are shocked. It is not that we think this will not happen to us,” she said. “At the same time, it took away our entire town.”
Both Canada and the United States are fighting severe wildfires and cannot share resources
Firefighters had to deal with people who were unwilling to leave on Wednesday. Jack Kagle, head of the accident management operations department, said their refusal meant that firefighters spent precious time loading people into cars to transport them out.
“We have firefighters drawing guns at them because people don’t want to evacuate,” he said.
The fire that broke out on July 14 was the largest fire in California. It has burned 504 square miles (1,305 square kilometers), an area larger than Los Angeles. The reason is under investigation. But Pacific Gas and Electric Company said this may have been triggered when a tree fell on one of the power lines.
The fire occurred near the town of Paradise, which was mostly destroyed in a wildfire in 2018, which became the deadliest fire in the country in at least a century and was blamed on PG&E equipment.
This photo shows the cars and houses destroyed by the Dixie Line of Fire in downtown Greenville on Thursday, August 5, 2021 in Plumas County, California.
(AP Photo/Noah Berger)
On Wednesday, August 4, 2021, as the Dixie fire burned in the Greenville community in Plumas County, California, Operations Director Jay Walter passed by the historic Sierra Lodge. The fire flattened many historic buildings and dozens of houses in downtown Greenville.
(AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Ken Downel left Greenville on Wednesday, thinking he would be back soon after a quick errand in several towns, but as the flames swept over him, he could not return. He said that all he has now is the clothes on his back and his old pickup truck. He was pretty sure that his office and house, as well as the bag he prepared for evacuation, were gone.
Donnell remembers helping the victims of the devastating campfire in 2018, in which about 100 friends lost their homes.
“Now I have 1,000 friends who lost their homes in one day,” he said.
The California Forestry and Fire Department said that by Thursday, the Dixie Fire had become the sixth largest fire in the state’s history. Four of the other five largest fires in the state occurred in 2020.
The fire forced Lassen Volcanic National Park to close to tourists.
Dozens of houses were burned down before the fire spread again on Wednesday. The US Forest Service stated that preliminary reports indicated that firefighters saved about a quarter of the buildings in Greenville.
“We do our best,” said fire spokesman Mitch Matello. “Sometimes it’s not enough.”
Officials said that about 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the south, 35 to 40 houses and other buildings were burned in the rapid river fire that broke out near Colfax on Wednesday. There are about 2,000 people in the town. . Within hours, it tore through nearly 4 square miles (10 square kilometers) of dry bushes and trees. Cal Fire said that without any containment measures, approximately 6,000 people in Placer and Nevada counties were ordered to evacuate.
In Colfax, Jamie Brown had breakfast at a downtown restaurant on Thursday while waiting to see if his house was still there.
A day ago, he evacuated his property from near Rawlins Lake, when “it looks like the entire town will be burned.” The situation has calmed down a bit, and he hopes everything goes well.
On Wednesday, August 4, 2021, when the Dixie fire swept through the Greenville community in Plumas County, California, a bench stood outside a charred building. The fire razed many historic buildings and dozens of houses in downtown Greenville.
(AP Photo/Noah Berger)
After the firefighters made progress earlier this week, high temperatures, low humidity and gusts of wind broke out on Wednesday and are expected to remain a threat.
Officials said the wind is expected to change direction several times on Thursday, putting pressure on firefighters in the part of the fire that has not been active for several days.
The trees, grass, and shrubs are so dry that “if the embers fall, you are almost certain to start a new fire,” Matlow said.
Heat waves and historic droughts related to climate change have made wildfires in the western United States more difficult to extinguish. Scientists say that over the past 30 years, climate change has made the region warmer and drier, and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
About 150 miles (240 kilometers) west of the Dixie Fire, the McFarlane Fire triggered by lightning threatened remote houses along the Trinity River in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. After the fire destroyed nearly 33 square miles (85 square kilometers) of dry vegetation, it was barely controlled.
Dangerous weather is also expected in Southern California. High temperature warnings and warnings will be issued to inland valleys, mountains and deserts most of the week.
The National Interagency Fire Center stated that more than 20,000 firefighters and support personnel are fighting 97 wildfires covering 2,919 square miles (7,560 square kilometers) in 13 U.S. states.
© 2021 Canadian Press
