The State - News from Sept. 19, 1988

The California Department of Forestry raised its estimate of damage in the Forty-Niner Fire and said that about 140 homes were destroyed. The agency announced that complete control of the fire was achieved about 8:30 p.m. Friday after a five-day battle. The blaze, believed to have been accidentally started by a transient Sept. 11, charred 35,300 acres, or 55.2 square miles, of forest land in the region west of Grass Valley and Nevada City. The Forestry Department had previously counted 92 dwellings destroyed by the flames. The larger estimate followed a damage survey made Friday. Nevada County Undersheriff Paul Rankin said he could not verify reports that forest marijuana growers suffered loss of their illegal plants in the blaze. He noted that about 2,500 plants worth an estimated $2 million were confiscated earlier this year in the Lake Wildwood region, which was hard hit by the fire. The cost of fighting the fire reached $4.2 million, the forestry department said.