NOVATO — One woman in her 80s tripped over another resident who had fallen on the landing in a steep stairwell. Others got disoriented, even in their own apartments, and cried out for help. At least 20 seniors with wheelchairs and walkers were essentially trapped, in the dark, in a...
California Power Outages Ease, First Linked Death Reported
SAN FRANCISCO — The lights were back on Friday for many of the nearly 2 million Northern California residents who lost electricity when Pacific Gas & Electric switched it off this week in an effort to prevent wildfires, as the first death linked to the outages was reported — a...
PG&E, Facing Colossal Liability, Seeks Bankruptcy Protection
Pacific Gas and Electric said it plans to file for bankruptcy protection amid potentially massive liabilities resulting from the deadly California wildfires. The announcement Monday follows the resignation of the power company's chief executive Geisha Williams a day earlier. John Simon, the company' general counsel since 2017, will serve as...
My Turn: We Must Reduce Fire Risk. Here Are Steps California Must Take
Winter rain cannot wash away the tragedy of the 2018 fire season for Northern California, the deadliest in state history. If the fires of 2017 were a wakeup call, the 2018 megafires were an air raid siren. We must take immediate steps to reduce fire risk, protect our rural communities, and ensure...
California Rookie Officer Fatally Shot Responding to Crash
DAVIS — A 22-year-old police officer on the job only a few weeks was shot and killed by a suspect who opened fire as she was investigating a three-car crash, authorities in Northern California said. The suspect, who has not been identified, was later found dead inside a home with...
California Storm Brings Power Outages, Shuts Down Highway
SAN FRANCISCO — Tens of thousands of people lost power after a powerful winter storm swept through Northern California, while another storm system in the southern part of the state unleashed mudslides in wildfire burn areas and trapped motorists on a major highway. The deluge loosened hillsides where a major...
Fire Death Toll Hits 63. Sheriff Says Hundreds Still Missing.
CHICO — At least 63 people are now dead from a Northern California wildfire, and officials say they have a missing persons list with 631 names on it in an ever-evolving accounting of the victims of the nation's deadliest wildfire in a century. The high number of missing people probably...
Experts: California Wildfire is Deadliest in Last 100 Years
Wildfire experts say the Northern California wildfire that has killed at least 56 is the deadliest in a century. California officials say the fire burning in a rural area far north of San Francisco killed more people than any blaze in the state's recorded history. But the U.S. government doesn't...
Death Toll in Northern California Wildfire Rises to 23
PARADISE, Calif. — The air thick with smoke from a ferocious wildfire that was still burning homes Saturday, residents who stayed behind to try to save their property or who managed to get back to their neighborhoods in this Northern California town found cars incinerated and homes reduced to rubble....
Northern California Wildfire Nearly Quadruples in Size
PARADISE — A wildfire that moved so fast that firefighters couldn't hope to stop it quadrupled in size Friday after destroying several thousand buildings and leveling much of a Northern California town of nearly 30,000 people, authorities said. Only a day after it began, the fire near the town of...