The Latest: PG&E power line may have sparked deadly blaze

The latest on wildfires raging in drought-stricken California (all times local):

7 p.m.

Fire investigators are looking into whether a fire in Northern California that has killed two people was sparked after a live tree came in contact with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power lines.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant says the fire started on Butte Mountain Road in Amador County, but what sparked the blaze remains under investigation.

PG&E says it is cooperating fully with the Cal Fire investigation and is reviewing the inspection and patrol data for 2014 and 2015 for the area near this fire.

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4:50 p.m.

A second body has been found in a wildfire burning in the Sierra Nevada foothills in Northern California.

It’s the third body found this week in two different Northern California fires.

Calaveras County coroner Kevin Raggio says two bodies were found Tuesday inside their homes, which were destroyed by a fire burning southeast of Sacramento.

Raggio says one is a 65-year-old man who refused to heed a mandatory evacuation order. He declined to identify the second victim, saying the family hasn’t been notified.

Earlier this week, an elderly disabled woman was found dead in the ruins of her Lake County home, about 100 miles north of San Francisco.

Dogs were being used Wednesday to search for a former police reporter and several other people who authorities fear also were killed in that fire.

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3:30 p.m.

Authorities say a body has been found in a wildfire burning in Northern California’s Sierra Nevada foothills.

The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Department says the body was found Wednesday in an area burned by a wildfire 60 miles southeast of Sacramento.

Sgt. Anthony Eberhardt says it was found at a burned-out home in the Mokelumne Hill area.

The blaze in Amador and Calaveras counties has destroyed at least 233 homes. It has charred more than 110 square miles and was 45 percent contained Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Northern California, cadaver dogs were used Wednesday to search for a former police reporter and several other people who authorities fear were killed in another fast-moving wildfire.

That wildfire was in rural Lake County, less than 100 miles north of San Francisco.

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2:05 p.m.

Rain is falling steadily at an evacuation center where hundreds of people fleeing a Northern California wildfire are staying in trucks and tents.

Pat Morales, Red Cross camp manager, says a large outdoor canopy is in place for people who want relief from the rain but have dogs too large to go into buildings.

The center at the Napa County fairgrounds is feeding about 1,000 people at each meal. The food is being prepared by wine country chefs who are donating their time and skill.

Andrew Wild is an adjunct at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena and a caterer. He says he showed up at the center Saturday night, hours after it opened, and started giving orders in the kitchen.

He’s working with donated sausages, hundreds of pounds of ice, truckloads of produce, and canned goods.

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1:27 p.m.

A local sheriff says he expects searchers to find several bodies amid the smoldering ruins of a Northern California county hard-hit by a drought-fueled wildfire.

Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin said Wednesday that cadaver dogs and their handlers are scouring Lake County in a search for missing persons thought to have perished in a fast-moving blaze that has destroyed more than 600 homes 90 miles north of San Francisco.

Martin didn’t elaborate further.

The body of an elderly, disabled woman was found Monday. Authorities are searching for a 69-year-old man last heard from Saturday night in his home in the same neighborhood.

State and local officials toured the disaster area Wednesday morning to assess the damage and to determine if President Barack Obama should be asked for emergency federal funds and aid.

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11:05 a.m.

Authorities have lifted mandatory wildfire evacuation orders for dozens of residents in the small Central California communities of Goodmill and Crabtree, east of Fresno.

California’s largest active wildfire has charred 218 square miles of grass, brush and timber since it was sparked by lightning July 31.

But for the first time in more than six weeks, firefighters are getting a handle on the blaze that now has flames simmering in places. It was 67 percent contained Wednesday.

The fire also has moved away from the Sierra Nevada’s Giant Sequoia trees, some of which are 3,000 years old.

Fresno County is about 300 miles southeast of where another massive fire is raging in Lake County in Northern California

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9:15 a.m.

Fire crews are gaining ground against a fire in the Gold Rush country of the Sierra Nevada foothills that has destroyed more than 400 homes and structures.

The blaze in Amador and Calaveras Counties has charred more than 110 square miles and was 45 percent contained on Wednesday. It is still threatening another 6,400 structures.

Forecasters say the area could see some rain Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the fire in Fresno County was more than two-thirds contained Wednesday, more than six weeks after the blaze was sparked by lightning.

It has charred about 218 square miles. Containment is at 67 percent. That fire is about 300 miles southeast of the fire raging in Middletown in Northern California.

8 a.m.

Authorities have arrested at least two suspects with burned out safes in their vehicles as they investigate reports of looting in the wake of Northern California’s devastating wildfire.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat (https://bit.ly/1Nx1ieN ) reports Wednesday that Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin said he didn’t have further details about the arrests.

He said deputies are unable to stand guard at individual homes. He characterized Middletown and Hidden Valley Lake as most vulnerable because that’s where the most homes were left standing while residents remained evacuated.

Police are being diligent about trying to protect homes.

Dozens of California Highway Patrol officers and law enforcement officers from outside agencies patrolled in Hidden Valley Lake, where an estimated 100 homes were lost and residents remained evacuated.

7:25 a.m.

Fire crews are gaining ground against a devastating Northern California fire that has destroyed hundreds of homes.

Cal Fire says the blaze in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco, was 30 percent contained Wednesday morning.

The wildfire, which started Saturday, has charred more than 109 square miles and destroyed at least 585 homes. Nine thousand more structures are threatened.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. But the San Francisco Chronicle reports (https://bit.ly/1OYdYu6) officials with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spent Tuesday surveying a burned-out shed next to a two-story home.

The house was unscathed, but the fire had charred a hill south of the home after possibly igniting in or near the small shed, which was charred and blackened on one side, the newspaper reports.

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7 a.m.

A 69-year-old man whose home was destroyed in the fire raging in Northern California has been reported missing by his family.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports (https://bit.ly/1FfNNPA) that authorities said Leonard Neft’s burned car was found Tuesday evening on the route he would have taken to try to escape. He lived in the small town of Anderson Springs and his house was destroyed.

Neft, a former police reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, last spoke with his family on Saturday evening, as the fires swept through the area.

His wife, Adela Neft, told the paper she repeatedly called her husband Saturday to tell him to leave, but he said he didn’t think the fire was coming toward him. He was alone in the home. Authorities say cadaver dogs will be sent in to search.

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