Posts
"Paradise
Lost": 5 Dead As "Wall Of Fire" Decimates Entire
California Town, "God Help Us"
9
November, 2018
Update
(2:30 pm ET): Police
in Northern California said five people have been found dead in their
vehicles in Paradise, California after the Camp Fire burned through
nearly the entire town. They couldn't immediately be identified
because of the burns. The Butte County Sheriff's Office said on
Friday that autopsies will be conducted, according to the
Associated Press.
That
fire has since expanded to nearly 110 square miles (285 square
kilometers).
* *
*
One
year after the deadliest and costliest wildfire season in
California's history, three wildfires have broken out in Northern
California. On Friday, the most aggressive of the three
fires destroyed
most of the town of Paradise, a community with 27,000 residents,
forcing residents to frantically flee for their lives. According
to USA
Today,
as strong winds fanned the flames, they also hindered aircrafts'
ability to drop flame retardant on the fire.
In
a 24 hour period, the Camp fire surged through the town of Paradise,
located in the Sierra foothills, torching some 31 square miles, or
20,000 acres. Panicking residents dropped everything, with some
abandoning cars to flee on foot as the fire blocked off escape routs.
The state issued a mandatory evacuation order as the smoke from the
flames darkened the skyline.
Residents
described being surrounding by a "wall
of fire" which
left them only minutes to grab what little precious belongings they
could before leaving.
"We were surrounded by fire, we were driving through fire on each side of the road," said police officer Mark Bass, who lives in Paradise and works in neighboring Chico.
Bass evacuated his family and then returned to the fire to help rescue several disabled residents, including a man trying to carry his bedridden wife to safety. "It was just a wall of fire on each side of us, and we could hardly see the road in front of us."
Sherri Pritchard said she only had time to grab a few pictures before fleeing with her family and dogs, even leaving clothes behind.
"It was crazy, because when we were sitting in traffic people were panicking," she said. "It was chaos. I couldn't believe what people were doing."
One
Paradise resident who spoke with the
Associated Press described
the final harrowing moments before she and her husband fled their
mobile home.
Shari Bernacett said her husband tried to get people to leave the Paradise mobile home park they manage. He "knocked on doors, yelled and screamed" to alert as many residents as possible, Bernacett said.
"My husband tried his best to get everybody out. The whole hill's on fire. God help us!" she said before breaking down crying. She and her husband grabbed their dog, jumped in their pickup truck and drove through flames before getting to safety, she said.
Horrifying
videos circulating on social media showed cars driving through what
looked like tunnels of fire..
Paradise is devastated, everything is destroyed." It’s destroyed parts of the Sierra foothills, including the town of Paradise, officials say. The so-called Camp Fire has been fuelled by strong winds and dry forest. #paradise #wildfire #california
Grass
and brush, severely parched from months without rain, along with the
extremely dry air, helped accelerate the fire, officials said.
"Basically, we haven't had rain since last May or before that," said Butte County CalFire Chief Darren Read. "Everything is a very receptive fuel bed. It's a rapid rate of spread."
Amid
the chaos, the strong winds whipped the flames into a 'firenado'.
Apocalyptic scenes show a ‘firenado’ swirling amid a scorched part of Butte County in California, as the Camp Fire that forced thousands to evacuate rages on. Hundreds of firefighters are battling the blaze. cnn.it/2Db8qQh
At
one local hospital, more than 60 patients were evacuated to other
facilities and some buildings caught fire and were damaged.
Some
patients had to be airlifted to safety due to the gridlocked traffic.
Four hospital employees who were trapped in its basement had to be
rescued by CalFire.
While
fires have been especially severe in recent years thanks to drought
conditions that have persisted across the state, one long-time former
volunteer firefighter said he hasn't seen a fire as aggressive as the
Camp Fire in his 40 years of working and living in the region.
No
death toll has been published yet. But
several residents are still missing. And it's possible that a count
of fatalities could be available soon.
From earlier
The
upscale California town of Malibu has been ordered
to evacuate after a
raging wildfire jumped the 101 freeway at approximately 5 a.m. and
barreled towards the seaside community amid high winds.
MANDATORY evacuation is in effect for the entire area south of the 101 Fwy from the Ventura County line to Las Virgenes / Malibu Canyon, and southward to the ocean, including all of City of Malibu. (Update 6:55 AM) Residents should use PCH to evacuate and avoid canyon roads. -Malibucity.org
A
large swatch of Malibu was under a new mandatory evacuation Friday
morning: from Liberty Canyon, west to Decker Canyon, south to
the Pacific Coast Highway.
Ventura
County Fire Department spokesman Scott Dettorre told CBS2 that
“dozens of homes” had been damaged or destroyed, but there was no
exact count. -CBS
Los Angeles
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