Ancient trees are spared as Calif. wildfires rage
First, the good news. A couple of well-known areas threatened by a series of devastating and deadly wildfires in Northern and Central California are out of danger, for the present at least. And with the fast-moving infernos increasingly being contained, evacuation orders in several places have been lifted.
One of the blazes, the Rough Fire in Fresno County, has moved away from the Sierra Nevada's Giant Sequoia trees, some of which are 3,000 years old.
Meanwhile, another fire (the Valley Fire) which has spread from Lake County to Napa and Sonoma counties, north of San Francisco, is posing little threat to the famed vineyards in those areas.
And, according to the National Weather Service, some very light showers are falling over the Valley Fire Wednesday morning. But that area isn't expecting to see much rain, said weather service meteorologist Nathan Owen, only a few hundredths of an inch.
In the meantime, the Fresno County Sheriff's Office has lifted mandatory wildfire evacuation orders for dozens of residents in the small central California communities of Dunlap, Miramonte, and Pinehurst east of Fresno.
The Rough Fire near Fresno, California's largest active wildfire, had charred 217 square miles of grass, brush and timber since it was sparked by lightning July 31. It was 40 percent contained Tuesday.
About 300 miles northwest in Lake County, fire crews are gaining ground against the devastating Valley Fire that has destroyed hundreds of homes. CalFire says the blaze in Lake County was 30 percent contained Tuesday evening, according to KXTV, a Sacramento station.
The Valley Fire, which started Saturday, has charred 105 square miles and destroyed at least 585 homes.
And now the bad news. The number of homes destroyed by the Butte Fire in the Gold Rush country of the Sierra Nevada foothills has risen to at least 233, according to AP.
The blaze in Amador and Calaveras Counties has charred more than 112 square miles and was 40 percent contained on Tuesday. It is still threatening another 6,400 structures.
The Butte Fire shouldn't see much rain on Wednesday, Owen said, and once this storm system passes by a drier pattern is likely by the end of the week and into the weekend for much of the state.
Meanwhile, at the White House on Tuesday, spokesman Josh Earnest said the Obama administration is asking Congress to change the way the federal government spends money to fight wildfires, the AP reported.
Earnest said that under the current funding system, the Forest Service and parts of the Interior Department are using money "that was originally dedicated to preventing forest fires to actually fight the forest fires." He said it's a flawed strategy because when less money is devoted to wildfire prevention, it means more will have to be spent on firefighting.
Contributing: Doyle Rice, Paste BN