A fast-moving fire in Northern California injured several people, a fire official said, and destroyed multiple homes Friday as thousands of residents were forced to leave immediately, jamming roadways at the start of a sweltering Labour Day weekend.
She said there were burned homes in the Lincoln Heights neighbourhood but “I don’t know how many. I’m positive several homes have been lost.” The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for Siskiyou County from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday when area winds were expected to reach up to 31 mph . “I’ve reached the philosophy that if I have all my paperwork, what’s in the house is not that important,” she said.
“With the wind in Weed everything like that moves quickly. It’s bad,” Jones said by phone from her home in Medford, Oregon. “It’s not uncommon to have 50 to 60 mph gusts on a normal day. I got blown into a creek as a kid.”