Evacuations continue in fire-ravaged California with no end to inferno in sight
- 9 years ago
With hundreds of properties now burned to the ground, some 23,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in northern California where two huge wildfires have triggered a state of emergency. At least one person is reported dead and four firefighters have suffered second-degree burns.
It is ranked as the most destructive to hit the drought-stricken U.S. West this year.
The so-called Valley Fire erupted on Saturday and spread quickly to a cluster of small communities in the hills and valleys north of Napa County’s wine-producing region, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents.
Some recounted chaotic ordeals of having to flee their homes through gauntlets of flames engulfing the neighborhoods around them.
“That whole place was ablaze. It was like Armageddon,” said Steve Johnson, a 37-year-old construction worker from Southern California who was visiting his mother in the fire-ravaged community of Hidden Valley Lake.
“We were literally driving through the flames.”
It is ranked as the most destructive to hit the drought-stricken U.S. West this year.
The so-called Valley Fire erupted on Saturday and spread quickly to a cluster of small communities in the hills and valleys north of Napa County’s wine-producing region, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents.
Some recounted chaotic ordeals of having to flee their homes through gauntlets of flames engulfing the neighborhoods around them.
“That whole place was ablaze. It was like Armageddon,” said Steve Johnson, a 37-year-old construction worker from Southern California who was visiting his mother in the fire-ravaged community of Hidden Valley Lake.
“We were literally driving through the flames.”