California Wildfires: Thousands Flee as Valley and Butte Blazes Force Evacuations

[marmar]

Hundreds of buildings have been lost to a fast-moving Northern California wildfire that had forced thousands to flee Sunday and hospitalized four firefighters with second-degree burns.

The so-called Valley Fire in Lake County, northwest of Sacramento, erupted early Saturday afternoon and rapidly burned through brush and trees parched from several years of drought, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CalFire.

The fire spread quickly, growing from 50 acres to 400 acres just before 4 p.m. (7 p.m. ET) Saturday, to 50,000 acres by Sunday afternoon. In a briefing at the Napa County fairgrounds, which has been turned into an evacuation center, officials said that the blaze was still at zero percent containment.

During the fire's first 24 hours, Napa County Fire Chief Barry Biermann said, authorities had one task in mind: "life saving." ....................(more)

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-wildfires-thousand-flee-firefighters-battle-blazes-n426531

[malaise]

1. This is huge

Fires are terrifying. I can't begin to process the speed of some of these fires.

[Adsos Letter]

2. I live about 30 miles south of Middletown

The weather today is significantly cooler than it has been over the last couple of weeks, when temps hovered between the mid-90's to low 100's. Hopefully, this cooler spell will give a much needed edge to getting containment on this thing.