WEED, California: Her home is destroyed, the dog goes missing, and her 10-year relationship with her boyfriend recently ended – all Naomi Vogelsang She sat outside a Northern California wildfire evacuation center on Saturday with $20 in her pocket, waiting for a ride to the casino.
“It couldn’t be worse,” she said.
Vogelsang is one of thousands who have been displaced by California’s latest inferno this week, this time in the tiny community of Weed About 280 miles (451 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco. Most visitors know this town as a novelty, a place to stop and buy an ironic T-shirt while traveling on Interstate 5.
But for the people who live here, the past few years have created another worry in a world full of them: dark skies, swirling ashes and flames running so fast that they have little time to escape.
This time it was a flame known as the Mill Fire. Flames from Roseburg Forest Products, which makes wood products, raged into the Lincoln Heights neighborhood, where a large number of homes burned down Friday afternoon and residents had to flee for their lives. The fire has spread to more than 6.6 square miles (17 square kilometers) by Saturday evening and 25% have been brought under control.
63-year-old after escaping from fire Judy Christensen Recalls one such escape 40 years ago when, as a young parent, she had to pull her children out of a burning house. Last summer, a wildfire forced him to evacuate and leave his pets behind. now, Christensen She says she leaves harnesses on her pets all the time so she can grab them at a moment’s notice and leave.
“Whenever this happens, I get really bad,” Christensen said from the front seat of a car at an evacuation center in Yereka, as Felix, his orange cat, snarled in the back seat. . “I can’t think straight.”
Nestled in the shadow of Mount Shasta – a 14,000-foot (4,267.2-m) volcano that is the second highest peak in the Cascade Range – Weed is no stranger to wildfires.
Strong winds in the area fan flames attracted the city’s founder for a very different reason. According to Bob West, a lifelong resident, Ebner Weed, a Civil War soldier who is said to have worked with Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender, decided to set up a sawmill there because the wind would dry out the wood. Joe co-owns Ellie Espresso & Bakery, a coffee and sandwich shop that houses some historic items from the city’s past.
The winds make the weeds and the surrounding area a dangerous place for wildfires, causing small flames to turn into a frenzy. Weed has seen three major fires since 2014, a period of extreme drought that prompted the largest and most devastating fires in California history.
This drought persists even when California is majorly the worst of the fire season. Scientists say climate change has made the West hotter and drier over the past three decades and will make the weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
Dominic Mathes, 37, said he’s had a few close calls to wildfires since he lives in Weed. But he has no interest in leaving.
“It’s a beautiful place,” he said. “Everybody has risks everywhere, like Florida has hurricanes and floods, Louisiana has tornadoes and all that stuff. So, it happens everywhere. Unfortunately there’s a fire here.”
Evacuation orders went into effect immediately on Friday for 7,500 people – including West, who is 53 and has lived in Weed since the age of 1. He’s never had to evacuate for a fire, but now he’s had to do it twice.
“It’s a lot worse than before,” he said. “It affects our community because people leave because they don’t want to rebuild.”
Cal Fire Siskiyou Unit Chief Phil Enzo said the crew worked throughout the day and night to protect the structures in Weed and in a subdivision formerly known as the Carrick Addition. He said around 100 structures were destroyed.
Two people were brought to Mercy Medical Center Mount Shasta. One was in stable condition and the other was transferred to UC Davis Medical Center, which houses the burn unit.
“There’s a lot at stake on that mill fire,” Enzo said. “There’s a lot of communities, there’s a lot of homes.”
Rescuers and firefighters immediately flooded local hotels, while others with family and friends rushed to stop outside the evacuation area.
Vogelsang was not as lucky. She said she slept on a bench in Weed until she got a ride to the evacuation center. She said she spends most of her time crying about Bella, her 10-year-old English Bulldog who – despite her best efforts – will not follow her through the fire and is lost.
“My dog was my everything,” she said. “I feel like I’ve lost everything that mattered.”
“It couldn’t be worse,” she said.
Vogelsang is one of thousands who have been displaced by California’s latest inferno this week, this time in the tiny community of Weed About 280 miles (451 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco. Most visitors know this town as a novelty, a place to stop and buy an ironic T-shirt while traveling on Interstate 5.
But for the people who live here, the past few years have created another worry in a world full of them: dark skies, swirling ashes and flames running so fast that they have little time to escape.
This time it was a flame known as the Mill Fire. Flames from Roseburg Forest Products, which makes wood products, raged into the Lincoln Heights neighborhood, where a large number of homes burned down Friday afternoon and residents had to flee for their lives. The fire has spread to more than 6.6 square miles (17 square kilometers) by Saturday evening and 25% have been brought under control.
63-year-old after escaping from fire Judy Christensen Recalls one such escape 40 years ago when, as a young parent, she had to pull her children out of a burning house. Last summer, a wildfire forced him to evacuate and leave his pets behind. now, Christensen She says she leaves harnesses on her pets all the time so she can grab them at a moment’s notice and leave.
“Whenever this happens, I get really bad,” Christensen said from the front seat of a car at an evacuation center in Yereka, as Felix, his orange cat, snarled in the back seat. . “I can’t think straight.”
Nestled in the shadow of Mount Shasta – a 14,000-foot (4,267.2-m) volcano that is the second highest peak in the Cascade Range – Weed is no stranger to wildfires.
Strong winds in the area fan flames attracted the city’s founder for a very different reason. According to Bob West, a lifelong resident, Ebner Weed, a Civil War soldier who is said to have worked with Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender, decided to set up a sawmill there because the wind would dry out the wood. Joe co-owns Ellie Espresso & Bakery, a coffee and sandwich shop that houses some historic items from the city’s past.
The winds make the weeds and the surrounding area a dangerous place for wildfires, causing small flames to turn into a frenzy. Weed has seen three major fires since 2014, a period of extreme drought that prompted the largest and most devastating fires in California history.
This drought persists even when California is majorly the worst of the fire season. Scientists say climate change has made the West hotter and drier over the past three decades and will make the weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
Dominic Mathes, 37, said he’s had a few close calls to wildfires since he lives in Weed. But he has no interest in leaving.
“It’s a beautiful place,” he said. “Everybody has risks everywhere, like Florida has hurricanes and floods, Louisiana has tornadoes and all that stuff. So, it happens everywhere. Unfortunately there’s a fire here.”
Evacuation orders went into effect immediately on Friday for 7,500 people – including West, who is 53 and has lived in Weed since the age of 1. He’s never had to evacuate for a fire, but now he’s had to do it twice.
“It’s a lot worse than before,” he said. “It affects our community because people leave because they don’t want to rebuild.”
Cal Fire Siskiyou Unit Chief Phil Enzo said the crew worked throughout the day and night to protect the structures in Weed and in a subdivision formerly known as the Carrick Addition. He said around 100 structures were destroyed.
Two people were brought to Mercy Medical Center Mount Shasta. One was in stable condition and the other was transferred to UC Davis Medical Center, which houses the burn unit.
“There’s a lot at stake on that mill fire,” Enzo said. “There’s a lot of communities, there’s a lot of homes.”
Rescuers and firefighters immediately flooded local hotels, while others with family and friends rushed to stop outside the evacuation area.
Vogelsang was not as lucky. She said she slept on a bench in Weed until she got a ride to the evacuation center. She said she spends most of her time crying about Bella, her 10-year-old English Bulldog who – despite her best efforts – will not follow her through the fire and is lost.
“My dog was my everything,” she said. “I feel like I’ve lost everything that mattered.”