By JANIE HAR and BRIAN SKOLOFF
A massive wildfire in Northern California has torched more than 1,000 homes in and around the city of Redding, authorities said Wednesday as some evacuees were allowed to return home and new blazes exploded in what has become an endless summer of flame in the Golden State.
“Whatever resources are needed, were putting them there,” Gov. Jerry Brown said at a news conference. “Were being surprised. Every year is teaching the fire authorities new lessons. Were in uncharted territory.”
Just a month into the budget year, the state has already spent one quarter of its annual fire budget, at least $130 million.
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The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said another 440 buildings, including barns and warehouses, have also been destroyed by the fire, which is now the sixth most destructive in California history.
The huge Redding-area blaze, which started July 23, forced 38,000 people from their homes and killed six. It has scorched 180 square miles (470 square kilometers) and is 35 percent contained.
North of San Francisco, a fire threatened homes in an old ranching and farming area near Covelo. About 60 homes were ordered evacuated as the blaze erupted late Tuesday and winds whipped flames through brush, grass, oak, pine and fir near the Mendocino National Forest, officials said.
To the east, another blaze Tuesday night raged through grassy cattle lands near Yuba City, covering more than 1½ square miles (4 square kilometers) in a few hours. The new fires erupted without warning and spread with shocking speed through forest and brush that have literally become tinder, said Scott McLean of CalFire.
“It just goes on and on,” McLean said.
“We had this rain at the beginning of the year and all that did was promote the growing of grass and brush,” McLean said. “Its a Catch-22. Its growing more product to catch on fire.”
He said the state really never left its drought status and several years of significant rainfall are needed to bring the state back. McLean also had a warning for people visiting rural and wilderness areas.
“Pay attention,” he said. “Dont park the car on dry grass … no campfires, no flame. It doesnt take anything to start a fire right now.”
The new fire near Covelo was only about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of where twin fires in Mendocino and Lake counties have burned an area nearly three times the size of San Francisco, destroyed 10 homes and threatened 12,000 more.
The Lake County seat of Lakeport remained under evacuation orders and was a virtual ghost town, although people were allowed back home in several smaller communities as firefighters shored up containment lines. Containment grew overnight to 24 percent.
Jessyca Lytle fled a fast-moving wildfire in 2015 that spared her property but destroyed her mothers memorabilia-filled Lake County home.
Lytle found herself listening to scanner traffic Tuesday and fire-proofing her mothers new home as another wildfire advanced.
“Honestly, what Im thinking right now is I just want this to end,” Lytle said, adding that she was “exhausted in every way possible — physically, emotionally, all of that.”
Paul Lew and his two boys, ages 13 and 16, evacuated Saturday from their Lakeport home.
“I told them to throw everything they care about in the back of the car,” said Lew, 45. “I grabbed computers, cellphones, papers. I just started bagging all my paperwork up, clothes, my guitars.”
Lew, who is divorced from Lytle, is camped out at the house in the nearby community of Cobb that she fled in 2015. He is watching over her chickens, sheep and other animals. With a laugh, he said repeated fire alerts have made him an emergency preparation expert.
“Its like three a year,” he said. “Its kind of crazy.”
In Shasta Countys Carr Fire, Redding police on Tuesday asked for help from the public locating two people who are still missing. A relative identified the latest known victim as Daniel Bush, 62.
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Bush had returned to his mobile home in the community of Keswick last Tuesday after undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery, but he was unable to drive and would have needed help to evacuate when the fire came through the neighborhood on Thursday, his sister, Kathi Gaston, told the Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding.
Gaston said her brother had wanted to stay in his own home, but he had spotty cell service and, with the power out, he might not have gotten word of the fire.
Gaston said she could not get to her brothers house because, with the fire approaching, sheriffs deputies had blocked the roads and then she herself had to evacuate.
“If wed been able to go in when we wanted to, hed be alive right now,” she said. “Im very upset about it.”
National Park Service officials said Tuesday that the scenic Yosemite Valley and other areas will be closed at least through Sunday due to heavy smoke from the so-called Ferguson Fire. The closure began July 25.
It was the longest closure at Yosemite since 1997, when floods closed the park for over two months.
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Har reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writer Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco also contributed to this report.
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