Two more people were found dead in the burn zone of a massive wildfire in Northern California, raising the death toll in the state’s largest wildfire of the year to four, authorities said Tuesday.
Search crews found the bodies Monday at separate residences along State Route 96, one of the only roads in and out of the remote region near the Oregon border, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
“This brings the number of confirmed deaths to four,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “There are no unknown persons at this time. Other details were not immediately released.
The remains of two people were also found Sunday in a charred vehicle in the driveway of a home near the small unincorporated community on the Klamath River that suffered extensive damage in the McKinney fire, sheriff’s officials said.
This fire has burned nearly 228 square kilometers and is the largest of several wildfires burning in the Klamath National Forest near the California-Oregon border.
“It’s really tragic when a fire starts and moves so quickly and practically destroys a community. And that’s what happened in the Klamath River area,” Mike Lindberry, a spokesman for the fire management team, said Tuesday.
“Pray for us”
As flames raged over the weekend in California, Franklin Tom fled his home in the small town of Yreka, where he grew up on the edge of a California national forest.
He made it to a shelter with his daughter, his medicine, some clothes and his bathroom shoes. Unlike some others, he was told he escaped and his home still stood.
“Keep praying for us,” said Tom, 55.
WATCH | McKinney Fire wipes out homes in California:
A California resident describes massive losses from the Mt. McKinney wildfire
A resident of Siskiyou County, California, near the Oregon border, surveys the charred landscape of a fast-moving wildfire and lists the many homes and structures that have been destroyed.
More than 100 homes and other structures have burned in the McKinney Fire since it broke out last Friday. Rain helped firefighters control the blaze, but authorities said it was still burning.
The cause of the McKinney fire is under investigation.
A smaller fire near the small community of Happy Camp prompted evacuations and road closures as it burned out of control Tuesday. More wildfires are raging across the western US, threatening thousands of homes.
Fires continue in Montana, Idaho, Nebraska
In northwestern Montana, a fire that started Friday near the town of Elmo on the Flathead Indian Reservation burned some buildings, but officials said they did not immediately know if any homes were involved.
The fire was 66 square kilometers in size on Tuesday, with 10 percent containment, fire officials said. Some residents were forced to flee Monday as gusty afternoon winds drove the fire away.
The Idaho Moose Fire has burned more than 140 square miles in the Salmon-Challise National Forest, while threatening homes, mining operations and fishing near the town of Salmon. As of Tuesday, it was 23 percent contained, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center.
In this photo provided by the Nebraska Forest Service, a bicycle is seen under a downed utility pole as smoke from the Carter Canyon wildfire drifts into western Nebraska on Monday. Fire crews battling a blaze that has destroyed some homes looked to the skies Tuesday as forecasters warned of thunderstorms. (Nebraska Forest Service/Associated Press)
A wildfire raging in northwest Nebraska has prompted evacuations and destroyed or damaged several homes near the small town of Gehring. The Carter Canyon fire started Saturday as two separate fires that merged. By Tuesday, it was more than 30 percent contained.
“We have the time”
California’s McKinney fire has become the state’s largest wildfire so far this year after being fueled by weekend winds gusting up to 50 km/h.
Cloudy weather and patchy rain continued to aid firefighters on Tuesday as bulldozers managed to surround the small and picturesque tourist destination town of Irica, California, with fire barriers. Crews carving firebreaks in steep, rugged terrain also made progress, fire officials said.
The fire was burning about 4 miles from downtown Yreka, which has a population of about 7,500.
“We have the weather,” said Todd Mack, incident fire commander for the U.S. Forest Service. “We have the horsepower. And we’re chasing them.”
But lightning over the weekend also sparked several smaller fires near the McKinney fire. And despite the much-needed moisture, the region’s forests and fields remained bone dry.
WATCH | Northern California wildfires continue:
Firefighters continue to battle wildfires in California
The fast-growing McKinney Fire in Northern California has burned more than 30,000 acres in the Klamath National Forest near the state’s border with Oregon. The situation is further complicated by thunderstorms bringing erratic winds that can shoot the flames in unexpected directions.
Among those waiting out the fire at the Yreka shelter Monday was Paisley Bamberg, 33. She arrived several months ago from West Columbia, South Carolina, and was living in a motel with her six children, ages 15 to one-year-old twins, when she was told to evacuate.
“I started throwing everything on my truck,” she said, noting that she had to put a lot of stuff away.
Bamberg said she had just been hired at an Arby’s restaurant and wondered if she would survive the fire.
“There might not be much when we get back,” she said. “I don’t know if I have a job. The kids had to go to school and I don’t know if the school is still standing.”
Bamberg said he was trying to keep his spirits up. “I’ve got six little people depending on me. I can’t break or waver.”
“I never thought it would ever happen”
About 2,500 people were under evacuation orders, but Tom said he knew many who remained in Yreka.
“There are still a lot of people in the city, people who refused to leave,” he said. “A lot of people who don’t have vehicles and can’t go. It’s really sad.”
Tom has lived in Yreka all his life, but said this is the first time he’s been threatened by a wildfire.
Three plumes of smoke from the McKinney fire in California were visible early Saturday. (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection/Cal Fire/The Associated Press)
“I never thought this would ever happen. I thought we were invincible,” he said. “That makes me a liar.”
Scientists said 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.
The US Forest Service has closed a 177-mile stretch of the famous Pacific Crest Trail in northern California and southern Oregon. Authorities helped 60 hikers in that area evacuate Saturday, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon.
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