Butte fire: Thousands evacuated in Gold Country as containment grows

But the flames kept up their momentum overnight Friday, ballooning from 32,000 acres to 65,000 acres by Saturday morning, said Dan Berlant, of the California Department of Fire and Forestry Protection, or Cal Fire.

The explosive growth of the Valley Fire forced authorities to order mandatory evacuations of a number of communities, including all of Hidden Valley Lake which has about 5,500 people, according to a Lake County Sheriff’s Office statement.

The firefighters, all members of a helicopter crew, were airlifted to a hospital burn unit, where they were listed in stable condition, department spokesman Daniel Berlant said.

The fire in drought-stricken California exploded to more than 100 square miles in two days, state fire officials said.

“There hasn’t been anyone flying today, the smoke has socked us in”, said Bud Englund, a Cal Fire public information officer in Plymouth.

Meanwhile, the “Butte Fire” in the Sierra Nevada mountains has destroyed at least 15 structures and threatens 6,400 homes as only 10 percent of the fire is 10 percent contained, officials said Saturday. Residents have been advised to gather their medications, pets, and important papers and leave the area immediately.

Firefighters on Saturday intentionally set low-intensity fires in a famed grove of giant sequoia trees in Kings Canyon National Park to remove vegetation and protect the grove from the wildfire, Schwarber said. There were reports Saturday night that some homes were lost and that people were trapped awaiting rescue.

At Angels Camp, a quaint town made famous by Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Tale of the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, incident commanders huddled behind a pickup truck loaded with maps assessing the fire’s progress as a line of horse trailers lined up near a corral with about two dozen horses. But officials then decided to make that a staging area for the battle against the blaze, and the evacuation center was moved to Valley Springs about 20 miles from its original location. Cooler weather was forecast for later Saturday, but people in San Andreas have been told they may still have to clear out.

“We always have to follow up air resources with ground resources”, White said.

“There is a wide variety of households generally there, but they are expand reasonably in every single place”, Tolmachoff said. Fifteen homes in the counties of Amador and Calaveras have already been burnt. There are 3,000 firefighters assigned to the blaze that ignited Wednesday, and more expected to arrive throughout the day.

The cause is under investigation.