The West Coast is in the early stages of a cooler, wetter season, but wildfires continued to plague Northern California this weekend as several blazes broke out on Sunday, forcing more than a thousand residents to flee their homes and destroying at least 10 properties.
Around 400 firefighters struggled to contain an out-of-control fire near lakeside resort town Bass Lake at half an hour past 1 o.m. on Sunday. David Berlant, a spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the fire started on a country road between Bass Lake and the nearby Oakhurst community nestled in the foothills of the Yosemite National Park. At least 320 acres were burned, says Berlant, and the fire is moving toward the Sierra National Forest.
Meanwhile, another conflagration has destroyed around 250 acres of forest in the foothills of the Sierras near Alta Sierra just south of Grass Valley and northeast of Sacramento, where residents of 133 homes were evacuated and an additional 400 homes being prepared for evacuation. The wildfire sparked in a remote area but quickly grew when it crept along an area filled with thick, dry brush. Firefighters are able to keep around 10 percent of the fires contained.
Further along in El Dorado County, another wildfire has burned at least 2,500 acres east of Pollock Pines and just off King of the Mountain Road. Families from around 130 homes were evacuated and another 400 more families near Forebay and White Meadows Roads are getting ready to flee.
Berlant says firefighters are doing their best to contain the fires, but they are waging a hard battle in a heavily forested area plagued with drought.
"When it gets into the timber, it's a lot harder to fight," explains Berlant. "We have seen this pattern all year long. There have been a lot more fires. They start in the grass and spread to the treetops, where there is a lot of fuel due to the dry conditions. Once it's into the treetops, it's a hard fight."
Down south, 700 firefighters, six helicopters and five planes fought to contain a wildfire that broke out in Cleveland National Forest, which sits southeast of Los Angeles between Orange and Riverside counties. Deanne Thompson of the Orange County Emergency Operations Center says the fire, which burned at least two and a half miles of dry canyon brush, is 10 percent contained.
