Houses reduced to smouldering ash and twisted metal with only chimneys rising above the ruin
Northern California wildfires that incinerated two communities continue marching through the Sierra Nevada mountains on Wednesday while an electricity company cut power to 51,000 customers to prevent new blazes on Tuesday.
Two weeks after the Dixie Fire destroyed most of the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville, the Caldor Fire a few miles southeast exploded through tinder-dry trees and ravaged Grizzly Flats, a forest community of approximately 1,200 people.
Fire officials estimated that at least 50 homes had burned in the area since the fire erupted Saturday and two people were hospitalised with serious injuries.
California Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in El Dorado County, where authorities were considering closing the entire El Dorado National Forest.
“We know this fire has done things that nobody could have predicted, but that’s how firefighting has been in the state this year,” El Dorado National Forest Supervisor Chief Jeff Marsolais said at a briefing.
Both fires grew by tens of thousands of acres from August 16, torching trees and burning up brush left tinder-dry by high temperatures, low humidity and drought. Afternoon gusts drove the flames.
Comments