WEED, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 4: A helicopter at the Weed airport is prepared for fire fighting duty on the Mountain Fire burning to the west near Gazelle, Calif., Sunday, Sep. 4, 2022, (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
A fire that swept through a historically important Black community in the Northern California town of Weed, killing two people, is encircled by fire breaks and hose lines and was deemed 55% contained by Cal Fire as of Tuesday. But a separate wildfire in rugged mountain terrain to the west continues to rage and is only 20% contained, the agency reported.
The Mill Fire in Weed on Friday ripped through the Lincoln Heights neighborhood, which was founded by Black people in the early 1900s during the Great Migration from the South. Two women, 66 and 73, were killed, Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue said Monday.
On Tuesday, Cal Fire pegged the size of the Mill Fire at 4,263 acres, the same size reported Monday when the agency’s Kent Cunningham told residents at a community meeting that the blaze was surrounded by containment lines made with bulldozers, hand tools and water hoses.
The fire, which started at or near a sawmill in Weed amid a heat wave and gusty winds then tore northward with what residents described as terrifying speed, destroyed 117 structures, including dozens of homes in Lincoln Heights and others in the Lake Shastina community a few miles to the north, Cal Fire said.
“Winds are expected to increase this afternoon however the fire is not expected to grow,” the agency said in an online update Tuesday afternoon. The cause remains under investigation.
To the west of Weed, the much-larger Mountain Fire, which also started Friday, was approaching 12,000 acres in size Tuesday, spreading in part through spot fires from floating embers, Cal Fire said. Steep terrain and “critically dry” vegetation were hampering firefighters’ efforts amid continued high temperatures, the agency said in an online update.
No deaths or injuries were reported from the Mountain Fire, which according to Cal Fire has destroyed four structures. That fire’s cause is also still under investigation, Cal Fire said.
Fire officials say the increased size and frequency of California’s wildfires result in part from global warming that leads to drought, dry vegetation, and the spread of tree-killing beetles, along with decades of fire suppression that has left forests packed with fuels.
Originally published at Ethan Baron