Raging California wildfires threaten thousands of structures
Pastor Dale Morgan
Raging California wildfires threaten thousands of structures*
* Story Highlights
* NEW: Fire has burned at least 40 homes, nearly 31 square miles
since it started
* More than 1,500 Bonny Doon residents were told to evacuate their homes
* Evacuated families don't know if their homes were destroyed
FELTON, California (AP) -- Strong, erratic winds complicated
firefighters attempts' to put down several fast-growing wildfires across
Northern California, including a blaze that now enveloped more than 31
square miles and threatened 4,600 structures, officials said.
A quick-moving wildfire sends plumes of smoke into the air in the Santa
Cruz mountains.
The winds spread the fire to the hills of the Butte College campus,
where officials had set up an incident command center, said California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Joshpae White.
"The fire is jumping around quite a bit," White said. "It's flaring up
in a lot of different areas."
At least 40 homes in Butte County were destroyed, and thousands of
residents were forced to evacuate. The fire was only 15 percent
contained Friday morning.
More than 1,500 Bonny Doon residents have been told to evacuate their
homes in the heavily forested hills about 10 miles northwest of Santa
Cruz since the fire broke out Wednesday afternoon. Among them was James
Eason, 28, who lives with his quadriplegic father in a yurt, a nearly
uninsulated wooden-framed structure covered in canvas. iReport.com: Fire
blazes in Bonny Doon
"It's stressful and frustrating. It makes you anxious not knowing if
you're going to have a place to go back to," James Eason said. "All of a
sudden, with the fire, the yurt doesn't seem so bad. We've started to
like it a whole lot."
About 900 firefighters were battling the wildfire, which grew to about 1
square mile and was about 25 percent contained. The fire flared just two
weeks after another blaze two miles away destroyed at least three dozen
homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Further south, another wildfire had charred more than 29 square miles in
the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County. It was nearly 40
percent contained Thursday evening.
In southeastern Colorado, a fire that started on a military training
site jumped the Purgatoire River, a natural fire break, and was
threatening eight nearby ranches.
About 242 firefighters were fighting the fire, which was burning on
grass and pinon-juniper in the remote and rugged country. It had burned
over 65 square miles and was not controlled at all, with gusting winds
hampering efforts for containment.
Across the country, authorities in North Carolina issued an air quality
advisory for Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham through Friday after smoke
from a wildfire burning in a wildlife refuge drifted westward. The
lightning-sparked blaze has burned more than 60 square miles in and
around the Pocosin Lakes Wildlife Refuge, and was only 40 percent contained.
Authorities say without a massive rainstorm, firefighters can do little
to extinguish the blaze and put an end to the smoky weather.