Firefighters Injured While Battling California Wildfires
More than 14,000 firefighters are battling some two dozen blazes around California on Tuesday as the state confronts its worst fire season on record in terms of land scorched by wildfires.
While the two mammoth San Francisco Bay Area fires were largely contained after burning for three weeks, firefighters struggled to corral several other major blazes ahead of expected winds.
Evacuation orders were expanded to more mountain communities as the so-called Creek Fire burned through the Sierra National Forest in Central California.
It was one of many recent major fires that displayed terrifyingly swift movement. The fire advanced 15 miles in a single day over the weekend. Since starting Friday from an unknown cause, it has burned 212 square miles. Forty-five homes and 20 other structures were confirmed destroyed so far.
Firefighters working in steep terrain saved the tiny town of Shaver Lake from flames that roared down hillsides toward a marina. About 30 houses were destroyed in the remote hamlet of Big Creek, resident Toby Wait said.
A school, church, library, historic general store and a major hydroelectric plant were spared in the community of about 200 residents, Wait told the Fresno Bee.
Sheriff’s deputies went door to door to make sure residents complied with evacuation orders. Officials hoped to keep the fire from pushing west toward Yosemite National Park.
About 200 miles away in the Los Padres National Forest near the coast, more than a dozen California firefighters trying to protect a mountain fire station from flames were overrun by the blaze Tuesday, and several were hurt.
Fourteen firefighters and bulldozer operators deployed emergency shelters as flames overtook them and destroyed the Nacimiento Station, the U.S. Forest Service said. They suffered from burns and smoke inhalation. Three were flown to a hospital in Fresno, where one was in critical condition.
California has already set a record with more than 2 million acres burned this year, and the worst part of the wildfire season is just beginning.
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