Massive Wildfire Rages in California: At Least 2 Dead, 150 Homes Destroyed

Massive Wildfire Rages in California: At Least 2 Dead, 150 Homes Destroyed
Jun. 25, 2016 11:36pm Associated Press

LAKE ISABELLA, Calif. (AP) — Authorities may have found human remains Saturday within a voracious wildfire in central California that has claimed two lives and burned 150 homes.

A home is fully engulfed in a fire caused by a fast burning wildfire in the section of South Lake near Lake Isabella, Calif. on Friday, June 24, 2016. Dozens of homes burned to the ground as a wildfire raged over ridges and tore through rural communities in central California, authorities said. (Ryan Babroff via AP)
The tally rose from 80 homes as firefighters began going through neighborhoods to count houses and mobile homes incinerated by the blaze.
In one mobile home, they found what appears to be a set of human remains, but because they were so badly burned forensic investigators will have to determine whether they belonged to a person or animal, Kern County Sheriff’s spokesman Ray Pruitt said.
Entire blocks were reduced to rubble, and at least 2,500 homes remained threatened.
The winds that drove the drove the fire through small southern Sierra Nevada communities calmed by late afternoon, helping firefighters gain access to the fire line. However, hot weather and low humidity remained a worry.
“That’s something we have to keep an eye on. It could spark another disaster,” Kern County fire Engineer Anthony Romero said.
About 1,140 firefighters battled the flames.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, freeing up money and resources to fight the fire and to clean up in the aftermath. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also authorized the use of funds for firefighting efforts, fire officials said
Since it began Thursday, the fire has swept through 35,711 acres – nearly 56 square miles – of parched brush and timber. It moved so quickly that some residents barely had time to escape – and two didn’t.
An elderly couple apparently was overcome by smoke as they tried to flee, county Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. Their bodies were found Friday, but their names haven’t been released.
Allen Montgomery, 40, who lives across the street from the couple, said he didn’t know their names but understood that the woman was bedridden. He said the house disappeared in the smoke when he fled his home on Thursday.
“There was so much smoke you could barely see it,” he said.

Kern County firefighters move on a fast burning wildfire burning near Yankee Canyon and State Route 178 near Lake Isabella, Calif. on Friday, June 24, 2016. Dozens of homes burned to the ground as a wildfire raged over ridges and tore through rural communities in central California, authorities said. (Ryan Babroff via AP)
When he came back Friday, Montgomery said he saw the man’s body about 20 feet from the house.
Everett Evans, 45, fled Thursday as the fire came down a mountain with a roar toward his South Lake mobile home. “When you hear a freight train, it’s time to leave. You could hear it, you could see it, you could smell it,” he said.
Evans said he knocked on doors to get neighbors to leave. Evans and his father, his son and his son’s girlfriend were in the convoy.
But he has nothing left to come back to. Virtually no homes survived in his neighborhood. A reporter visiting on Saturday found only a burned flag blowing in the wind on a flagpole above the rubble of Evans’ home.
Evans hadn’t been allowed back to the home, but he said he lost mementos and photos from his former marriage and years in the Marine Corps.
“That’s all memories. You get to keep your life, but you lose your memories,” he said.
Shiela McFarland, 67, from Mountain Mesa, left her home three days ago, taking her computer, cellphone, papers and her miniature poodle, Snuggles.
At an evacuation center, she slept on a cot outdoors next to his kennel.
McFarland said she didn’t know whether her home survived, but she was philosophical.
“It doesn’t matter if I’ve lost everything,” she said Saturday. “I’ve got my little dog, my kids and my grandkids. I’ve seen other people in worse shape.”
The fire tore through small communities of houses and mobile homes that surround the lake – actually a reservoir – and the Kern River, a popular spot for fishing and whitewater rafting. The communities are nestled in foothills of the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range that runs hundreds of miles north and south through eastern California.
Scorching heat and tinder-dry conditions across the West have contributed to massive wildfires in the past week that have destroyed properties and sent residents to seek shelter and hope for the best.
Jim Terry and his neighbor took a chance and used garden hoses to keep their rooftops and trees damp as flames raced toward them.
He gave up when thick, black smoke rolled toward him, Terry said.
“I never quit in my life but it was time to throw in the towel,” he said Saturday when he returned to check on his house.
The gamble paid off. Three houses on his side of the street, including his, were saved.
A neighbor’s house across the street was reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble.
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Now, this is conspiracy talk but I have a friend with a brother that is a chemist engineer and he states< " The Government control the weather in California" and claim once they destroy Cali value they the feds will take it over. Just saying...

That's not conspiracy, I have a friend, air force, and we have talked about weather warfare and he says it is true.  I remember reading a few years back that the military said they would own the weather in so many years - I think, we have the ability along with China, Russia and maybe one or two other countries, and that is why there is so much destruction in certain countries.  If we follow certain events, say China does something that we don't like - wow, here come the rains, floods, etc., same goes for Russia and they turn the tables on us.  Look at Texas, they "more or less, really more" told Obama and his regime to go eat soft soap and the rains came, the floods came, and they still come.  I think that is retaliation for snubbing the regime - I am waiting to see what happens in England, they have already seen massive flooding as well as Europe, so is that natural or weather warfare - if warfare, ?? Russia for all the sanctions put on it by the EU??

From my sister who lives on the coast in central California -

CA is burning everywhere.   There are two fires and are considered one I Duarte and Azusa.  We get earthquakes and fires, and the east is flooded out. Fortunately for me the smoke is going in the other direction.

We used to live in the Duarte and Azusa area, very hilly, next to the San Gabriel Mountains, very densely populated.