1 dead, others missing in Northern California wildfires

SACRAMENTO, Calif. Cooler weather and a clearing sky allowed firefighters to unleash new aerial attacks on Northern California’s two major fires Monday, but officials warned that the blazes that have killed at last one person and burned hundreds of homes since last week may be just the beginning of California’s fire problems.

“We don’t see an end to fire season for months to come,” Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott said Monday as the state marshaled an army of 11,000 firefighters to battle 12 major blazes in the state that have consumed more than 700 square miles.

The two latest �� the Butte fire that broke out Wednesday and is burning in Amador and Calaveras counties, and the Valley fire that erupted Saturday in Lake County �� have destroyed hundreds of homes and killed at least one Lake County woman.

“We only have one confirmation,” said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, “but we do have people who are unaccounted for.”

The woman confirmed killed in the fire was an elderly, disabled resident of the Cobb area who was unable to get out of her home. The Lake County sheriff’s office said Monday that a call to help the woman came into its dispatch center Saturday at 7:12 p.m., almost six hours after the fire began.

“By late Monday, Cal Fire’s latest estimates said the Butte fire had consumed 71,063 acres, destroyed 135 homes and 79 other structures and threatened 6,400 homes. It was 30 percent contained.

The Valley fire was at 61,000 acres and had destroyed 400 homes and hundreds of other buildings, threatened another 9,000 homes and killed at least one person. It was at only 5 percent containment.

Four firefighters suffered burns in the first few minutes of the Valley fire, and officials stressed that firefighters have been hampered by residents who refused to obey evacuation orders.

“Quite simply and directly, they’re not (cooperating) and these fires are extremely fast-moving,” Pimlott said. “We know folks were not heeding evacuation orders to leave, and the challenge to that (is) firefighters are always going to protect lives and property first.

“We had individuals walking down the street after their homes had burned and their cars had burned and had no place to go and we pulled them out.”

Gov. Jerry Brown said he had spoken to veteran firefighters who expressed surprise at the speed with which fires have been expanding in drought-stricken areas, and that residents need to follow orders when told to flee.

“This is damn serious stuff,” Brown said. “People have to leave when they get word.”

Cal Fire estimated that as many as 19,000 people had been left their homes in the Butte and Valley fires. Firefighters have had to contend with exploding ammunition and fireworks in some of the empty homes.

In Lake County, dozens of people gathered in a dirt parking lot Monday afternoon outside a CHP roadblock in Lower Lake along Highway 29.

Betty Kuckowicz, a Twin Lakes resident for 22 years, was among those chafing at the fact that she was not being allowed to return home.

“I have a car, I can leave again if I need to,” she said.

Kuckowicz said she fled her home Sunday and knows it survived because her husband later sneaked behind the fire lines to check.

Jessica Armstrong, who lived on a ranch in Hidden Valley for 15 years, said her home was destroyed. “It’s really frustrating, but I guess they’re doing the best they can,” she said at the roadblock.

Along her neighborhood streets, many homes were spared while others burned. “That’s how fires happen,” she said.

In Calaveras County, some people have been displaced since last Wednesday when the fire started. Frustrations were beginning to boil over Monday among those who still cannot return to their neighborhoods or even find out if their homes are still standing.

Terry Jones left a 5-acre property on East Emigrant Trail four days ago and said he is frustrated at not being able to get any word on the status of his house or whether he can return.

“I evacuated because there was ash all over my front yard,” Jones said. He left a boat, two trucks and a Lincoln Continental on the property, but took two pairs of pants and two dogs with him.

Other evacuees have sought refuge wherever they can, including the streets of San Andreas.

“Its hard to go through town,” said Ed Stewart, co-founder and director of the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary near San Andreas. “You have people living in tents. It looks like most of San Andreas is sleeping in parking lots around town. I don’t know people are going to do.”

Stewart said he stopped by a local post office and saw a woman laughing as she walked out with a package that had come for her. “This is my only possession,” she told him. “Everything else is lost.”

At the Angels Camp Campground, evacuees have gathered with hundreds of trucks, trailers and tents in what resembles a subdued carnival-like presence. Among the evacuated are more than 300 horses, sheep, goats and dogs.

Most of the people here have been at the camp for more than a day, with some, like Glencoe resident Carol Oz, living here with her two dogs since Wednesday. A former wildland firefighter, Oz has never seen a fire bigger than the Butte fire.

She left her house on Independence Road in a rush. “I left my home on Wednesday at noon because I looked out and could see this orange tower of heat and light that was 10 times taller than the tallest tree on my property,” she said.

Cal Fire’s Pimlott said the state currently has experienced 1,500 more fires this year than by the same time last year, and the fire behavior is extreme because of the drought.

“I can tell you whether you’re a rookie firefighter with your first year or you’re a seasoned veteran, everyone is saying the same thing: (they) have not seen fires move and spread at this pace,” Pimlott said.

Firefighters from across California and the West are being brought in to help, with teams from Nevada state fire units coming in and federal firefighters from the Pacific Northwest.

“We’ve gone outside of California to get an additional 50 fire engines from other states,” Pimlott said.

The state Department of Finance said Monday that it approved $12.4 million for Cal Fire from the state’s emergency fund to pay for additional firefighters through December, helicopter use and other firefighting resources.

But the new resources will do little to immediately help the refugees from the fire.

“I have been to the evacuation shelters and seen the same people every day,” said Cal Fire information officer Joshua Rubinstein. “There is an expression of hopelessness on their faces.”

(c)2015 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.)

Visit The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.) at www.sacbee.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.