Erratic winds prompt evacuations in California

BIG SUR – They’re evacuating Paradise. Authorities ordered thousands of residents in the town north of Sacramento to leave after erratic winds blew embers across wildfire containment lines, destroying 40 homes nearby, in the latest setback for already strained fire crews.

Firefighters also were struggling against a sudden drop in humidity and a 10-degree spike in temperature as a heat wave forecast to linger until the weekend grips much of the state. “Right now we’re battling the weather and the erratic winds,” said Todd Simmons, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman.”Whatever the winds are doing, that’s pretty much what the fire’s going to do.”Residents of 3 200 homes in Paradise were ordered to evacuate on Tuesday after fire destroyed 40 houses in the neighbouring rural community of Concow.Evacuation orders also remained in place for 800 to 1 000 residents from Concow and Yankee Hill, about 136 km north of Sacramento.About 30 lightning-sparked wildfires in Butte County, where Paradise and Concow are located, have charred 47 000 acres in recent weeks and was about 40 per cent contained, officials said.Among those evacuated on Tuesday were 95 children at a camp for kids with cancer, 70 miles north of Sacramento.”They’ve been remarkably good,” Michael Amylon, the camp’s medical director, said of the children.”We always talk about fire being a danger.”Fire crews across the state have been trying to cover hundreds of active California wildfires, many of which were ignited by a lightning storm more than two weeks ago.Some 1 450 fires had been contained late on Tuesday, but more than 320 were still active, authorities said.At a fire east of Bakersfield on on Tuesday, wind gusts caused flames to jump fire lines and destroy or damage five residences and four more outbuildings in the Sequoia National Forest.A blaze threatening the small coastal community of Big Sur let up just enough to allow hundreds of people to check on their homes on Tuesday.The expected heat wave raised not only the fire danger, but also concerns about heat illness among firefighters worn down by the long fight against blazes that have consumed more than 985 square miles in California since late June.”We do have a lot of fatigue because of the low numbers of resources in the state,” said Thom Walsh, a Forest Service resource unit leader.Temperature records for the date were broken in five cities on Tuesday.Among them were Sacramento, where the temperature reached 108, breaking the previous high of 104 degrees set in 1997.Stockton recorded 105 and Modesto 107, both breaking records for July 8 set in 2006.Nampa-AP”Right now we’re battling the weather and the erratic winds,” said Todd Simmons, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman.”Whatever the winds are doing, that’s pretty much what the fire’s going to do.”Residents of 3 200 homes in Paradise were ordered to evacuate on Tuesday after fire destroyed 40 houses in the neighbouring rural community of Concow.Evacuation orders also remained in place for 800 to 1 000 residents from Concow and Yankee Hill, about 136 km north of Sacramento.About 30 lightning-sparked wildfires in Butte County, where Paradise and Concow are located, have charred 47 000 acres in recent weeks and was about 40 per cent contained, officials said.Among those evacuated on Tuesday were 95 children at a camp for kids with cancer, 70 miles north of Sacramento.”They’ve been remarkably good,” Michael Amylon, the camp’s medical director, said of the children.”We always talk about fire being a danger.”Fire crews across the state have been trying to cover hundreds of active California wildfires, many of which were ignited by a lightning storm more than two weeks ago.Some 1 450 fires had been contained late on Tuesday, but more than 320 were still active, authorities said.At a fire east of Bakersfield on on Tuesday, wind gusts caused flames to jump fire lines and destroy or damage five residences and four more outbuildings in the Sequoia National Forest.A blaze threatening the small coastal community of Big Sur let up just enough to allow hundreds of people to check on their homes on Tuesday.The expected heat wave raised not only the fire danger, but also concerns about heat illness among firefighters worn down by the long fight against blazes that have consumed more than 985 square miles in California since late June.”We do have a lot of fatigue because of the low numbers of resources in the state,” said Thom Walsh, a Forest Service resource unit leader.Temperature records for the date were broken in five cities on Tuesday.Among them were Sacramento, where the temperature reached 108, breaking the previous high of 104 degrees set in 1997.Stockton recorded 105 and Modesto 107, both breaking records for July 8 set in 2006.Nampa-AP