Wildfires force evacuations in Central and Northern California

Two wildfires that began Sunday afternoon in Northern and Central California are prompting evacuations.

The Detwiller Fire, which began shortly before 4 p.m. just east of Lake McClure in Mariposa County, has spread to 2,500 acres and is forcing evacuations of residents on Hunters Valley road and parts of Bear Valley Road, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

In Mendocino County the Grade Fire, which started shortly before 3 p.m., was burning along U.S. 101 about five miles northwest of Redwood Valley, fire officials said.

By 8:45 p.m. the fire had burned about 1,000 acres and was 10% contained, according to Cal Fire’s incident webpage. Residents of the Baker Creek subdivision were under mandatory evacuation orders.

The Mariposa County Sheriff’s Department posted details about the evacuations and listed the address of an evacuation center on its Facebook page.

The department’s post asked for people to stay out of the area.

“Lots of people out there trying to take photos but we would like to remind everyone that fire can be a very fast moving changing situation, it is very important to keep the roads clear for Emergency Traffic,” the statement read.

In Mendocino County, the sheriff’s department said on its Facebook page that in addition to the mandatory evacuations for residents of the Baker Creek subdivision, some advisory evacuations had also been issued. Emergency notifications were being issued by the county’s alert system, which can be accessed here.

paloma.esquivel@latimes.com

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