Valley Fire grows to over 10000 acres, prompting evacuations; 4 firefighters

Four firefighters suffered burns Saturday afternoon battling a fast-moving blaze in Lake County. Lynn Tolmachoff, California’s Forestry and Fire Protection Department spokeswoman, said the wildfire already covers over 60,000 acres in those two counties after having grown through Friday night.

On Saturday, officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for residents living in the Hidden Valley Lake Community, Lake County, an area about an hour outside the state capital of Sacramento. “With the dry conditions we have across California, this fire has been explosive in the size and just how quickly (it) has been able to grow”.

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

The so-called Butte Fire, burning in Calaveras and Amador counties, began Wednesday, scorching only 100 acres. Thousands of residents in the area were required to evacuate on Friday.

Hundreds of people from smaller surrounding communities had evacuated their homes and were filling up evacuation centers, one of which had to be moved twice Friday to get a safe distance from the flames.

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.

The fire grew overnight after officials initially overestimated the area of the blaze on Friday, Tolmachoff said.

“It’s like the whole town folded up”, said Nola Rasberry, 86, who was staffing the Angel’s Camp visitor’s center on Main Street, where she said a stream of disappointed tourists had been coming in.

Sean White, 48, lives in Rail Road Flat, north of San Andreas, and said he didn’t need to be told to leave his home. Firefighters continued to fortify containment lines Saturday, the U.S. Forest Service said.

“Reminded me of an eclipse when it gets dark”, White said.

“They’re really working hard on the south end of this fire to keep it pretty much where it’s at”, said Englund.

About 6,400 PG&E customers are now out of power in Calaveras and Amador counties due to wildfire damage. There are 3,000 firefighters assigned to the blaze, and more expected to arrive throughout the day. In an effort to save the trees, firefighters have been clearing lines with bulldozers around the Grant Grove and putting up sprinklers.