Mon, Jun 27, 2016 page7

• California wildfire death toll might rise

  ‘TIME TO LEAVE’: A 45-year-old former US Marine said he has nothing to return to, adding that he lost mementos from a former marriage and years in the military

  • AP, LAKE ISABELLA, California
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  Lighter winds are helping firefighters make gains on a voracious and deadly wildfire in central California that has burned 150 homes and claimed two lives.

  The toll might rise.

  Firefighters might have found human remains on Saturday when they began going through neighborhoods to count houses and mobile homes incinerated by the blaze. In an unrecognizable mobile home, they found what appears to be a set of human remains, but because they were so badly burned, forensic investigators would have to determine whether they belonged to a person or animal, Kern County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Ray Pruitt said.

  

  Wildfires leave mobile homes devastated in South Lake, California, on Saturday.

  Photo: AP

  The tally of burned homes rose from 80. Entire blocks were reduced to rubble and at least 2,500 homes remained threatened.

  The winds that drove the fire through small southern Sierra Nevada communities eased by late afternoon, helping firefighters contain 10 percent of the blaze.

  “Our crews are feeling pretty good,” said Joe Reyes, an operations chief for the fire. “If the winds does not act up drastically, we are hoping to make headway in the next 24 hours.”

  About 1,700 firefighters battled the flames.

  California Governor 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 on Thursday last week, the fire has swept through 14,896 hectares of parched brush and timber. It moved so quickly that some residents barely had time to escape — and two did not.

  An elderly couple were apparently overcome by smoke as they tried to flee, county Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. Their bodies were found on Friday, but their names have not been released.

  Allen Montgomery, 40, who lives across the street from the couple, said he did not know their names, but understood that the woman was bedridden. He said their house vanished in the smoke when he fled his home on Thursday.

  “There was so much smoke, you could barely see it,” Montgomery said.

  He said he saw the man’s body about 6m from the house when he came back on Friday.

  Everett Evans, 45, fled on Thursday as the fire came down a mountain with a roar toward his South Lake mobile home.

  “When you hear a freight train, it is time to leave. You could hear it, you could see it, you could smell it,” Evans said.

  He 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.

  However, 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 was not allowed back to the home, but said he lost mementos and photos from his former marriage and years in the US Marine Corps.

  “That is all memories. You get to keep your life, but you lose your memories,” he said.

  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 kilometers 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.

  The gamble paid off. Three houses on his side of the street, including his, were saved.
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