New evacuations ordered in face of raging California wildfire
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Authorities issued new evacuation orders on Thursday for Northern California mountain communities after an out-of-control wildfire doubled in size overnight, scorching more than 100 square miles of drought-parched timber and brush.
A force of nearly 3,700 firefighters struggled to stop the forward march of the King Fire, the largest and most dangerous of 11 major wildfires raging across California, but had managed to cut containment lines around 5 percent of the flames as of Thursday morning, officials said.
The fire has now burned over 70,000 acres of state land and the El Dorado National Forest northeast of Sacramento, up from 28,000 on Wednesday evening.
No buildings were believed to have been destroyed since the blaze erupted on Saturday but the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said some 2,000 single-family homes and 1,500 other structures were in the path of the flames.
Two injuries had also been reported, although no further details were immediately available. Highway 50 was ordered closed and two evacuation shelters were opened in the area for residents forced to flee their homes.
Late on Wednesday, Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in response to the King Fire and a blaze farther north, putting all state resources at the disposal of his Office of Emergency Services.
Numerous campgrounds were closed in the forest, a popular destination for river rafting and other activities east of Sacramento. Two firefighters were reported hurt with non-life-threatening injuries, said Cal Fire spokeswoman Lannette Rangel.
The fire, stoked by strong, erratic winds, dry vegetation and low humidity, was burning largely unchecked in steep canyon terrain along the south fork of the American River and Silver Creek, north of the community of Pollock Pines.
Mounting danger from the blaze came after crews halted the advance of another fire hundreds of miles to the north in the Cascade range on Tuesday, after 150 buildings were lost in the town of Weed near Mount Shasta and the Oregon border.
Police volunteer Mark Merrill said two churches and a sawmill were among buildings damaged or destroyed in the historic logging town of 3,000 people.
California's fire season, which traditionally runs from May to October, is on track to be the most destructive on record, state fire managers say.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb, Alex Dobuzinskis, Steve Gorman, Eric M. Johnson and Curtis Skinner; Editing by Bill Trott and Jim Loney)