Calif. wildfire evacuees return as fire containment grows
SACRAMENTO — About 800 of the thousands of residents evacuated because of a wildfire in Northern California were able to return home after the fire reached 45% containment Thursday night.
Cooler overnight temperatures have helped the more than 3,500 firefighters battling the Rocky Fire, about 100 miles north of San Francisco, that began July 29. The fire, burning east of Lower Lake and stretching into Colusa, Lake and Yolo counties grew to about 109 square miles Thursday, making it larger than the size of the City of Sacramento.
The growing fire has destroyed 43 homes and 53 outbuildings so far, and is threatening more than 6,500 structures. Some 12,000 people remained under evacuation orders or warnings. Cal Fire said it expected to lift evacuations Friday morning for more residents.
Full containment of the fire is expected early next week.
For some of those returning home, relief turned to grief as they saw the remnants.
Layna Rivas said she "couldn't think, I could only feel," when she came upon the remains of the artists compound where she lived.
"All of it is gone. It's so surreal," Rivas said through tears Thursday. "It looked like a bomb went off everywhere."
On Saturday, Rivas, 35, had left the compound up a rocky dirt road in Lake County only to return to find the place and its seven structures burned. Crisp remnants remained of the kitchen, sleeping quarters, artists' studio and hen coop. Melted aluminum hardened into silver snakes on the ashy ground.
She had taken her cats and dogs to a friend's house, but had to leave her eight chickens behind. She found just one of them walking through the rubble.
"She was nameless. Now her name is Rocky," said Rivas, naming the bird for the blaze.
The flames mowed down some dwellings and left others untouched near Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake fully within California. Some houses a mile apart were completely burned, while nearby buildings and trees weren't touched by the flames.
The fire is the largest of 23 fires statewide and has the attention of nearly a third of the 10,000 firefighters dispatched to blazes in drought-stricken California.
At the Rocky Fire, hundreds of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmates are also battling the blaze.
The inmate firefighters are from Konocti Camp, which houses 110 male inmates. The low level offenders live there year round. About 85% of them fight fires, while 15% do other jobs around the camp, including cooking, welding, automotive work and even waste water treatment.
Wildfires throughout the West have fed off dry conditions in Washington state, Montana, Arizona and elsewhere.
California Gov. Jerry Brown visited fire crews and said the state is hotter and drier than it's ever been, making blazes more severe and extending fire season.
"This is the beginning of the fire season, and it's acting like it's the end," Brown said.
Contributing: Emily Pritchard, KXTV-TV, Sacramento; The Associated Press.