WEED, Calif. (AP) – A fast-moving wildfire in rural Northern California injured several people Friday, destroyed multiple homes and forced thousands of residents to flee, blocking roads at the start of a sweltering Labor Day weekend.
The fire dubbed the Mill Fire started on or near the property of Roseburg Forest Products, a plant that produces wood veneers. It quickly burned through homes, pushed by 35-mph (56-kph) winds, and by evening had engulfed 4 square miles (10.3 square kilometers) of soil.
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 explosion and all the smoke just rolled toward us.”
Very quickly her home and about a dozen others caught fire. She said members of her church helped evacuate her and her son, who is immobile. She said the scene of smoke and flames looked like “the world is coming to an end.”
Many places in the area were also without power. About 9,000 customers, many of them in Weed, were hit with power outages shortly before 1 p.m., according to electric power company PacifiCorp, which said they were due to the wildfire.
Cal Fire spokeswoman Suzi Brady said several people were injured.
Allison Hendrickson, spokeswoman for Dignity Health North State hospitals, said two people were brought to Mercy Medical Center Mount Shasta. One was in stable condition and the other was taken to UC Davis Medical Center with a burn injury.
Meanwhile, a second fire that erupted a few miles north of the Mill Fire near the community of Gazelle has burned 600 acres (243 hectares) of land and prompted a number of evacuations.
Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Siskyou County and said that a federal grant was received “to help ensure the availability of essential resources to suppress the fire.”
California is in the grip of a prolonged drought and now a brutal heat wave that is taxing the power grid as people try to stay cool. Residents were asked for three consecutive days to conserve energy during late afternoon and evening hours when energy consumption is highest.
Scientists say climate change has made the West hotter and drier over the past three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. In the last five years, California has experienced the largest and most destructive wildfires in state history.
Southern California saw two large fires break out earlier in the week. The last evacuation orders for those were lifted around the time the Mill Fire started at noon Friday. Flames spread quickly and about 7,500 people were under evacuation orders that covered the small city of Weed and surrounding areas, which are about 250 miles (402 kilometers) north of San Francisco.
Dr. Deborah Higer, medical director at the Shasta View Nursing Center, said all 23 patients at the facility were evacuated, with 20 going to local hospitals and three remaining at their own homes, where hospital beds were set up.
Olga Hood heard about 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 famous gusts that sweep through the town at the base of Mount Shasta, she didn’t wait for an evacuation order. She packed her documents, medicine and little else, said her granddaughter, Cynthia Jones.
“With the wind in Weed, everything moves so fast. It’s bad,” Jones said by phone from his home in Medford, Ore. “It’s not uncommon to have 50 to 60 mph gusts 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 town eight years ago, destroying more than 160 buildings, mostly homes.
Hood cried as she discussed the fire at a relative’s house in the small town of Granada, Jones said. She was unable to collect photos that were important to her late husband.
Willo Balfrey, 82, a Lake Shastina artist, said she was painting Friday afternoon when her grandson, who is a member of the California Highway Patrol, called to warn her of the fast-spreading flames.
“He said, ‘don’t delay, take your computer, take what you need and get out of the house now. It’s coming your way.’ So I did,” Balfrey said.
She grabbed a suitcase full of important documents, as well as water and her computer, iPhone and chargers, and headed out the door.
“I’ve come to the philosophy that if I have all my documents, what’s in the house isn’t that important,” she said.
She stopped to pick up her neighbor and they drove to a church parking lot in Montague, where about 40 other vehicles were also parked.
Rebecca Taylor, communications director for Springfield, Oregon-based Roseburg Forest Products, said it was unclear whether the fire started near or on company property. A large empty building on the edge of company property was on fire she said. All employees were evacuated, and no one reported injuries, she said.
The plant employs 145 people, although not all were on duty at the time, Taylor said.
“We’re just devastated to see this fire affect the community in this way,” she said.
In Southern California, firefighters made progress Friday against two large wildfires.
Containment of the Route Fire along Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles has increased to 56% and it remains at just over 8 square miles (21 square kilometers), Cal Fire said. On Wednesday, seven firefighters working in triple-digit temperatures had to be taken to hospitals for treatment of heat illnesses. All were released.
In eastern San Diego County, the Border 32 Fire remained at just under 7 square miles (18 square kilometers) and containment had increased to 65%. More than 1,500 people had to evacuate the area near the US-Mexico border when the fire erupted on Wednesday. All evacuations were suspended Friday afternoon.
Two people were hospitalized with burns. Three homes and seven other buildings were destroyed.
Rodriguez reported from San Francisco, where Associated Press reporter Janie Har contributed. AP reporters Stefanie Dazio and Brian Melley in Los Angeles also contributed.