California governor warns of more wildfires

Firefighters in Northern California are still battling a dozen wildfires that have displaced 23,000 people and claimed more than 700 homes and hundreds of other structures.

Cooler temperatures overnight may have helped firefighters increase containment on the Valley Fire burning mainly in Lake County.

Favorable conditions on a number of fronts provided relief Tuesday in combating the destructive Valley fire which has consumed almost 70,000 acres in Lake County as well as parts of Sonoma and Napa counties.

It’s not clear if modeling would have predicted the rapid growth of a blaze in Lake County that torched more than 60 square miles in 12 hours, destroyed almost 600 homes and killed a woman last weekend.

The 585 homes known to have been destroyed represents the greatest property loss from a single wildfire among the scores of conflagrations that have ravaged the drought-stricken U.S. West so far this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.

Firefighters are calling it a “career fire”, such is its speed and force, he said.

“There was kind of a randomness of it because the wind was so erratic”, Cal Fire Chief Dave Shew said as he stood in the apartment complex’s ashes. McWilliams had settled in the Middletown area in the a year ago, her family said.

With the Butte and Valley fires destroying more than 500 homes so far, CA Gov. Jerry Brown said the magnitude can’t be underestimated.

“In some cases, residents only had minutes to evacuate”, Cal Fire said during a fire situation report on Sunday afternoon.

The Valley Fire is only a close-up of a recurring problem in California.

As of Monday evening, the fire had scorched 289,000 square kilomteres and was 35 per cent contained.

About 300 kilometers to the east, another fire was raging in the Sierra Mountains, having destroyed 135 homes by midday Monday. The fire forced the evacuation of two towns. The flames prevented deputies from reaching her subdivision, and rescue workers found her body when the fire subsided, Lake County Sheriff’s Lt. Steve Brooks said.

Firefighters have maintained a precautionary line around Grant Grove, an ancient grove of Giant Sequoia trees, and set prescribed burns to keep the flames from overrunning it.

Scores of people are meeting at a high school in Northern California waiting to be escorted back to their homes to check on pets and farm animals after massive wildfires swept through the area.

Fire investigators working to determine what caused the massive blaze have narrowed their focus to an area in the community of Cobb, where the blaze was first spotted, said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant.