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...
California Wildfire Victims Say Cleanup Crews Added to Woes
SANTA ROSA — One year after wildfires devastated Northern California's wine country and destroyed thousands of homes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' first experience cleaning up after a wildfire has turned into an expensive bureaucratic mess. The state's top emergency official suspects fraud played a role. In October 2017,...
Fire Roaring Through Northern California Triples in Size
REDDING — An explosive wildfire that closed down dozens of miles of a major California freeway nearly tripled in size overnight, just weeks after a nearby blaze that left neighborhoods in ruins and killed eight people, officials said Thursday. The fire that erupted Wednesday afternoon and devoured timber and brush...
What Fresno County Is Doing to Prevent Deadly Wildfires
It has become an annual tradition of tragedy — wildfires ravaging large swaths of the California landscape, each year shattering records of destruction seemingly set only months prior. Once again wildfires rage in our own backyard, blazing through countless acres of dead and dying vegetation still struggling to recover following...
Gov. Brown Declares Emergency As California Burns
Fire stoked by hot and windy weather raged through a forest in far northern California on Thursday. In mountain communities east of Los Angeles, calmer conditions aided firefighters on the lines of a suspected arson wildfire that forced thousands of people to flee. California Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday issued...
Arson Wildfire Forces Entire California Town to Evacuate
IDYLLWILD — A fast-moving wildfire — believed to have been sparked by arson — tore through trees, burned five homes and forced evacuation orders for an entire mountain town as California sweltered under a heat wave and battled ferocious fires at both ends of the state. Winds were calm early...
Fire Near Yosemite Grows To 43,000 Acres. Brown Declares Emergency.
California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Mariposa County on Thursday afternoon because of the deadly Ferguson Fire. Earlier Thursday, the governor declared emergencies due to wildfires in Riverside and Shasta counties. Firefighters worked through Wednesday night to expand and strengthen containment lines around the wildfire west...
Visitors Leave Yosemite Valley as Nearby Wildfire Rages
The few remaining campers in Yosemite Valley packed up their gear Wednesday and cleared the area for firefighters battling a huge wildfire near Yosemite National Park. The sun rose in a smoke-filled sky over the scenic valley, which normally bustles with summer tourists but has largely emptied out after authorities...
Ferguson Fire Grows To 53 Square Miles, Is 13% Contained
MARIPOSA — Firefighters battling the huge Ferguson Fire in the Sierra Nevada will face increasingly difficult conditions this week as a heat wave sets in. Officials say the wildfire has scorched nearly 53 square miles of timber and brush west of Yosemite National Park, and 13 percent of its perimeter...
Storms, Dead Trees Could Hinder Firefighting Near Yosemite
MARIPOSA — A deadly forest fire kept spreading Wednesday west of Yosemite National Park, and erratic winds and trees killed by a historic California drought are expected to pose more problems for firefighters, officials said. The Ferguson Fire between the park and the town of Mariposa that's popular with visitors...