A firefighter sprays water as flames from a wildfire consume a residence near Oroville, Calif., on Sunday. Evening winds drove the fire through several neighborhoods leveling homes in its path.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
Firefighters battle a wildfire as it threatens to jump a street near Oroville, Calif., on Saturday. Evening winds drove the fire through several neighborhoods leveling homes in its path.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
A firefighter battles a wildfire as it threatens to jump a street near Oroville, Calif., on Saturday. Evening winds drove the fire through several neighborhoods leveling homes in its path.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
Flames from a wildfire consume a car near Oroville, Calif., on Saturday Evening winds drove the fire through several neighborhoods leveling homes in its path.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
Flames from a wildfire consume a shed near Oroville, Calif., on Sunday. Evening winds drove the fire through several neighborhoods leveling homes in its path.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
Smoke looms above Broadcast Peak behind a fire break along a ridge line east of Cachuma Lake in Santa Barbara County, Calif., on Sunday. Wildfires barreled across the baking landscape of the western U.S. and Canada, destroying a smattering of homes, forcing thousands to flee and temporarily trapping children and counselors at a California campground. Southern California crews hope slightly cooler temperatures and diminishing winds will help in the battle Sunday.
John Palminteri/KEYT-TV via AP
CalFire firefighter Jake Hainey, left, and engineer Anna Mathiasen watch as a wildfire burns near Oroville, Calif., on Saturday. The fast-moving wildfire in the Sierra Nevada foothills destroyed structures, including homes, and led to several minor injuries, fire officials said Saturday as blazes threatened homes around California during a heat wave.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
Flames from a wildfire engulf trees near Oroville, Calif., on Saturday. The fire south of Oroville was one of more than a dozen burning in the state as firefighters worked in scorching temperatures to control unruly flames.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
A plane drops retardant while battling a wildfire near Oroville, Calif., on Saturday. The fire south of Oroville was one of more than a dozen burning in the state as firefighters worked in scorching temperatures to control unruly flames.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
Jim Berglund sprays water while defending his home as a wildfire approaches on Saturday near Oroville, Calif. Although flames leveled Berglund’s barn, his home remained unscathed as the main fire head passed.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
Jim Berglund sprays water while defending his home as a wildfire approaches on Saturday near Oroville, Calif. Although flames leveled Berglund’s barn, his home remained unscathed as the main fire head passed.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
Flames from a wildfire consume a residence near Oroville, Calif., on Sunday. Evening winds drove the fire through several neighborhoods leveling homes in its path.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
The remains of a recreational vehicle rest in a clearing after a wildfire burned through the property on Saturday near Oroville, Calif. The fire south of Oroville was one of more than a dozen burning in the state as firefighters worked in scorching temperatures to control unruly flames.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
A charred desk rests outside a residence after a wildfire burned through the property on Saturday near Oroville, Calif. The fast-moving wildfire in the Sierra Nevada foothills destroyed structures, including homes, and led to several minor injuries, fire officials said Saturday as blazes threatened homes around California during a heat wave.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
A wildfire burns on a mountain behind an RV park office in Cache Creek, British Columbia, in the early morning hours of Saturday.
Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via Associated Press
Trucks burned by a wildfire rest in a grove near Oroville, Calif., on Saturday. The fast-moving wildfire in the Sierra Nevada foothills destroyed structures, including homes, and led to several minor injuries, fire officials said Saturday as blazes threatened homes around California during a heat wave.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
A DC-10 makes a fire retardant drop on a ridge line along the eastern flank of the Alamo Fire in Santa Barbara County, Calif. Wildfires barreled across the baking landscape of the western U.S. and Canada, destroying a smattering of homes, forcing thousands to flee and temporarily trapping children and counselors at a California campground. Southern California crews hope slightly cooler temperatures and diminishing winds will help in the battle Sunday.
Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via Associated Press
The moon rises over flames on a hilltop near Highway 166 east of Santa Maria, Calif., in what is known as the Alamo Fire in Santa Barbara County, Calif. Wildfires barreled across the baking landscape of the western U.S. and Canada, destroying a smattering of homes, forcing thousands to flee and temporarily trapping children and counselors at a California campground.
Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via Associated Press
Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via Associated Press <br><br>Abandoned campsites at Cachuma Lake where visitors were forced to flee advancing flames of the Whittier fire east of Cachuma Lake in Santa Barbara County, Calif. Wildfires barreled across the baking landscape of the western U.S. and Canada, destroying a smattering of homes, forcing thousands to flee and temporarily trapping children and counselors at a California campground. Southern California crews hope slightly cooler temperatures and diminishing winds will help in the battle Sunday. (Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP)
OROVILLE, Calif. – Thousands of residents in the western U.S. and Canada have fled their homes as wildfires barreled across the baking landscape, destroying property.
Firefighters have been able to build containment lines around about half the wildfire that forced the evacuation of hundreds of people near Breckenridge, Colorado. The fire has not spread since it broke out Wednesday and was still less than a square mile Sunday.
Here’s a look at the wildfires elsewhere in the West.
California
Two major wildfires in California have forced nearly 8,000 people out of their homes.
About 4,000 people evacuated and another 7,400 were told to prepare to leave their homes as fire swept through grassy foothills in the Sierra Nevada, about 60 miles north of Sacramento, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Sunday.
The fire has burned nearly 4 square miles, injured four firefighters and destroyed at least 10 structures, but that number is expected to rise, fire spokeswoman Mary Ann Aldrich said.
The area burning was southeast of Oroville, where spillways in the nation’s tallest dam began crumbling from heavy rains this winter and led to temporary evacuation orders for 200,000 residents downstream.
“It leaves you feeling like you can’t catch a break,” said Sharon Reitan, who sought shelter at an evacuation center with her boyfriend Sunday night.
They were in Oroville on Friday afternoon when the fire broke out and roads to their hillside home were blocked. They later saw photographs of their home burned to the ground.
“The road that we live on was hit hard,” Reitan said. “We’re in shut down mode right now, it’s so devastating.”
The fire was 20 percent contained. It was one of 14 wildfires across California that about 5,000 firefighters battled Sunday.
In Southern California, at least 3,500 people evacuated as two fires exploded in size at separate ends of Santa Barbara County and a third one threatened homes near a town in San Luis Obispo County.
One of the fires grew to 12 square miles, traversing a mountain range and heading south toward coastal Goleta.
There was minimal containment, and flames shut down State Route 154, which is expected to remain closed for days. At least 20 structures burned, but officials didn’t say if they were homes.
The fire broke out near a campsite and sent hundreds of campers scrambling, including about 90 children and 50 staff members at the Circle V Ranch who had to take shelter until they could be safely evacuated.
Amayah Madere told KCBS-TV she was in the pool when a counselor told the children to get out and change in a hurry. She said they waited in a dining hall while firefighters fought the fire and the counselors sprayed down the area with water.
“I prayed that if I didn’t die I would go to church, and right when I prayed the firefighters came,” Madere said.
Crews were also using an air attack against another blaze about 50 miles north that exploded in size to 37.5 square miles. About 200 rural homes east of Santa Maria were evacuated after the fire broke out Saturday and was fed by dry gusts.
Some of the firefighters working to contain that blaze were sent to nearby San Luis Obispo County when a fire broke out Sunday and threatened numerous structures near the town of Santa Margarita. Officials said the fire burned 340 acres.
Elsewhere in the West
In rural Arizona, fire officials say three homes were among 10 buildings that were burned. The wildfire there has led to the evacuation of the entire town of Dudleyville, about 100 miles southeast of Phoenix.
A wildfire burning in near Summer Lake in south-central Oregon has destroyed a hunting cabin and an outbuilding.
In Nevada, fire officials have ordered evacuations for a wildfire that is near the same area where another blaze has already burned for days.
British Columbia
Firefighters were contending with more than 200 wildfires burning in British Columbia that had destroyed dozens of buildings, including several homes and two airport hangars. The three biggest fires, which have grown in size to range from 9 to 19 square miles, had forced thousands of people to flee.
“We are just, in many ways, at the beginning of the worst part of the fire season and we watch the weather, we watch the wind, and we pray for rain,” outgoing Premier Christy Clark told reporters in Kamloops.
Rob Schweizer, manager of the Kamloops Fire Centre, said it had been an unprecedented 24 hours.
“We probably haven’t seen this sort of activity that involves so many residences and people in the history of the province of B.C.,” he said.
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