Homes, college evacuated as wildfire erupts in Northern California

A fast-moving wildfire that broke out on Thursday on the outskirts of a National Forest in Northern California has prompted the evacuation of a community college, a major highway and some residents, officials said.

The Mountain Fire, which erupted about noon PDT just north of the town of Bella Vista in Shasta County, had raced across some 600 acres (240 hectares) within a few hours, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said on its incident website.

Photos of the blaze posted on Twitter by the Shasta County Sheriff's Office showed thick black and gray smoke billowing into the area over a highway near the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. There was no containment of the flames.

"Jones Valley and Bella Vista area residents! This situation is very fluid and rapidly changing, if you do not see your road listed but feel you are in danger YOU MAY EVACUATE to Shasta College Gymnasium," the sheriff's department said in a separate tweet.

The Shasta College campus was closed along with Highway 299 and about a dozen smaller roads. Residents of small communities in the path of the flames were told to evacuate or be prepared to flee on short notice.

California was hit by some of the deadliest and most destructive wildfires in a century last year and state officials have warned this year's fire season could be similarly intense.

The Camp Fire, which broke out in Butte County in November and overran the town of Paradise, killed 89 people and left thousands of others homeless. State fire investigators determined that the Camp Fire was sparked by Pacific Gas & Electric Co transmission lines.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

1 killed in raging California wildfire as residents race to flee

One person was killed in a raging, out-of-control wildfire that sent residents racing to flee a northern California city on Friday as flames burned homes and businesses and knocked out power, fire officials said.

A bulldozer operator was killed in the so-called Carr Fire, a blaze in Shasta County, which has tripled in size in the last 2 days to 28,000 acres (11,300 hectares), the state's forestry and fire protection department said.

The blaze has crossed the Sacramento River and now threatens hundreds of homes on the western fringes of the city of Redding, the Sacramento Bee said.

"The fire is moving so fast that law enforcement is doing evacuations as fast as we can. There have been some injuries to civilians and firefighters," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Scott McLean told the newspaper.

"It’s way too dynamic and burning quickly."

Local and state fire officials were not available to confirm details of injuries.

Roads out of the city of 90,000 people were jammed with motorists trying to escape the flames, social media postings showed.

Multiple power outages were reported, the city said on its website, adding that the electric utility was shutting off power in its northern areas. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com