California cities reported record temperatures this weekend as a punishing and dangerous heat wave only worsened in some areas Sunday.
The heat has already sparked damaging wildfires and stressed the state’s power grid. Forecasters warn the sweltering temperatures also pose health risks as people celebrate the holiday weekend.
The northern half of the West Coast has been spared the worst of the heat wave, according to Sunday excessive heat warnings and heat advisories from the National Weather Service. Most of California and Nevada and parts of Arizona, Utah, Oregon and Idaho should brace for high temperatures, forecasters say.
Meanwhile, two dangerous wildfires are burning through the same California county, creating new challenges for firefighters.
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The wind-driven Mill Fire, which started Friday about 250 miles north of San Francisco, has destroyed more than 100 homes and killed 2 in the small town of Weed, blazing through more than 4,200 acres and standing at 40% contained as of Sunday evening, according to Cal Fire.
The nearby Mountain Fire, close to the small community of Gazelle, meanwhile, grew Sunday evening to nearly 9,000 acres. It was 10% contained, according to Cal Fire.
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Wind-whipped fires that have forced the evacuation of thousands in Northern California have killed at least two people, the authorities said Sunday.
The news of the deaths came as firefighters struggled for a third day to vanquish the flames. The Mill fire, which erupted on Friday near a defunct lumber mill in the town of Weed, Calif., has consumed more than 4,200 acres there and in nearby communities and destroyed at least 100 homes, local officials said, though they are still assessing the damage.
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Among the areas devastated was the Lincoln Heights area of Weed, a historically Black community that was founded by Black mill workers in the 1920s.
Witnesses said the fire, whipped by howling winds, exploded so suddenly that there was scarcely time to evacuate. By Sunday afternoon, it was 40 percent contained.
The two killed in the Mill fire were women, ages 66 and 73, said Jeremiah LaRue, the Siskiyou County sheriff-coroner. They were not related, he said. “We have lost two people to this fire,” Sheriff LaRue told a community meeting in Montague, a town north of the fires. “There’s no easy way of putting that.”
The Mill fire was the first of two substantial blazes to ignite on Friday in Siskiyou County, near the Oregon border. As of Sunday afternoon, the larger Mountain fire had raced through more than 8,400 acres and was only about 10 percent contained. Overall, 4,300 firefighters from across California were working to contain those two fires, according to Cal Fire, the state’s fire protection agency.
On Sunday, residents of Weed and other communities including Lake Shastina were trying to process the destruction and scale of loss.
Stacey Green, a city councilor in Weed, home to about 2,900, has lived in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood for more than 50 years. The fire destroyed his home and took everything he had.
“My point of reference is just dirt. Black, gray dirt, and it’s leveled,” he said at a Red Cross evacuation center provided by the Karuk Tribe in Yreka, about 30 miles north of Weed.
Mr. Green was taking a nap on Friday when he heard knocking on his door. He woke up to see flames engulfing a tree in his front yard. He then saw that his backyard was on fire, too. Across from his home on Crestmore Avenue, houses were already in flames, he said. Unable to find his keys, wallet or shoes, he left with only his cellphone and the clothes on his back. Surrounded by smoke, he walked to a nearby highway in his socks.
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On Monday, Mr. Green will spend his 59th birthday at the evacuation center, not the room he grew up in. His grand piano, which he learned to play by ear, will not be there. Neither will the photographs of his late parents.
“I feel like a piece of me is gone. That’s what made me, and that’s no longer there,” he said.
Eddie Russell, who lived in an apartment in Lincoln Heights, was another evacuee at the shelter. He said that he had just moved back to Weed in May from Georgia, where he had lived for two decades, after his mother had died. He felt like he was putting down roots in Lincoln Heights.
“That was my home, I was settling down,” Mr. Russell said.
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He, too, lost everything in the fire, including a tablet with photographs of his mother.
“All I had was my backpack and the clothes on my back,” Mr. Russell said. He said he was upbeat but honest about his loss, and that it would not be the first time he needed to start over in life.
Many longtime residents of Siskiyou County are familiar with that predicament. But after the Boles fire in 2014 and the Lava fire in 2021, along with recent fires in Yreka, the continual evacuations have many in the region reeling.
Sheriff LaRue said that the fires have been “devastating” for the working-class small towns. He added that residents who live within fire zones can face “extraordinarily” high insurance rates, making it hard for people to afford premiums and adequate coverage.
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The geography of Weed is a factor in its vulnerability to fire. The town was founded as a lumber town, and the mill was built there because the winds coming off Mt. Shasta dried the timber, Sheriff LaRue said.
But those same winds, along with drought and high temperatures, also serve as a propellant to any fires in the region.
“If you get a fire, it’s like a blowtorch,” he said. [NYT, USA Today]
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This is about UN Agenda 21. Homeowners–who thought they were safe in rural places or mountain communities–are being burned out. You had better believe that Directed Energy Weapons are being used to do this. I bet–like fires in the last few years–there are whole neighborhoods where the structures are destroyed….but trees are not even singed. Everyone will be re-located to mega-cities. Think it’s all imaginary? Just wait.
Overhere,
Yeah, I saw some video and articles on that Paradise fire that looked highly suspicious. Also read a report that stated the resources (gold, land, and timber) were desireable. So that may have been the motive to burn down the area. Also, the local dental office was obliterated. Some bodies were melted into the seat springs of their cars. Hard to identify those bodies. Some cars looked like they had peculiar damage indicating high energy weapons, ie., DEW.
Hot Earth. Like extreme weather is a natural aspect of the approach of Planet X. Its magnetic field puts tremendous stress on the tectonic plates. And CA is right where all the action is as the North American plate is pushed over the Pacific Plate. Intense heat being generated. The local Indians have many legends about this in the past. Only the beginning of extreme events blamed on organized evil. And certainly, they put info out there to encourage this. Anything to hide the truth for as long as possible.
Dry trees and grass, high winds, plastic and wood houses and the fire will be FEROCIOUS!
Also due to plate stress in CA, the ground is warmer. Why fires are burning so intense last few years.
Well, at least there wasn’t any climate alarmist nonsense in the article. Wonder if the area was neglected as far as brush clearance and maintenance? Winds always hit this time of year too. Deadly combination.
Wonder if a pothead named that town—Weed?
LOL Quite possible. After all, this IS California,