Cloudy weather and some rain helped firefighters in northernbattle several blazes that exploded in size in the Klamath national forest over the weekend.
Gary Rainey, a rancher, and the volunteer fire department chief, Janet Jones, talk to a reporter at the ruins of the century-old Klamath River Community Hall, which was destroyed by the McKinney fire.The fire near the California-Oregon border has burned nearly nearly 88 sq miles and is the largest California has seen so far this year. It remains uncontained. A separate fire north-east of Happy Camp forced evacuations and road closures as it burned out of control on Tuesday.
The McKinney fire started small but exploded over the weekend as thunderstorm cells brought winds gusting to 50mph at times. Yreka could see a high of nearly 90F on Tuesday, and the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning of extreme fire danger into Tuesday night because of the chance of lightning starting new fires and gusty outflowing winds from thunderstorms powering the flames.