In response to those who flatly refused to evacuate, he said, deputies were asking for next-of-kin information so they would have someone to notify if the holdouts died. “They are met with people who have guns and (are) saying, ‘Get off my property and you are not telling me to leave,’” he said. Greg Hagwood, a Plumas County supervisor, said that in the last 72 hours, as fire has swept through or threatened small mountain towns including Greenville, the evacuations have grown tense - in some cases, residents have met law enforcement with weapons. Law enforcement has issued evacuation orders for thousands of residents whose communities were under siege, yet some are choosing to stay behind, posing more challenges. No deaths have been reported so far in the Dixie fire, but some residents are taking risks that alarm authorities. “There have been times during the fire when pretty much every time that an ember would spot and land in grass, it was almost guaranteed to ignite and start another spot fire,” he said.įirefighters were working Friday to protect homes around Lake Almanor, where fire had reached the western shore but had not yet burned to the peninsula, they said. That was more than double the 50,000 acres by which it expanded the day before, said Rick Carhart, public information officer with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Stoked by extreme drought, dry vegetation and gusty winds, it was burning more rapidly and behaving more erratically than even veteran firefighters could recall ever seeing.Īfter razing the Sierra Nevada town of Greenville, the fire continued to spread and throw off spot fires Thursday, burning through the small community of Canyondam as it grew by 110,000 acres. and the third largest in recorded California history.Īs the effects of climate change are felt more intensely worldwide, this singular blaze was raging in four counties - Butte, Lassen, Plumas and Tehama - and had scorched 679 square miles, an area considerably larger than the city of Los Angeles. More than three weeks after it ignited in a remote canyon, the monster Dixie fire continued to break records Friday, leapfrogging Oregon’s Bootleg fire to become the largest burning in the U.S. Anita Chabria, Alex Wigglesworth and Lila Seidman / Los Angeles Times (TNS)
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