Weekend storms could be a mixed blessing for crews battling California’s largest wildfire as they have to fight to save homes and businesses in some of the most difficult and remote terrain.
About 50,000 Paradise firefighters are fighting some 18 massive blazes that have burned more than 1,600 homes in the town of Paradise since the weekend, with the fire on the outskirts of the city threatening to consume the largest concentration of oil fields in the state.
More than 1,600 homes have been destroyed in wildfires that have burned through the town since the weekend in northern California, including six oil fields — one of them more than 3,000 acres in size — but many more homes have been saved in the rural town of Paradise.
The blazes have burned a quarter of Paradise; half of that area has been reduced to a charred wasteland, and authorities have been working to evacuate residents and firefighters.
More than 1,500 firefighting personnel are battling six massive blazes near Paradise, California, which is at most 35 miles west of Los Angeles. More than 1,600 homes and businesses have been destroyed in wildfires that have burned through the town since the weekend, including six oil fields, one of them more than 3,000 acres in size. (David McNew / Getty Images)
This week has seen the most expensive Californian wildfire season in a century. At least 50 people have died.
And now, on the heels of an increasingly volatile and unpredictable weather pattern in the central part of the state, crews are racing to save homes and businesses in some of the most difficult and remote terrain.
The most important task, they worry, is keeping the homes dry.
“There’s not a lot of infrastructure in that area,” said Gary Bautista with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. He said crews can be seen working in the scorching sun at the Pinaleno oil field in Paradise on Sunday afternoon.
Firefighters from across the state are converging on the most fire-prone areas of the state to tackle blazes and to save more properties from the destructive force of the fierce wildfires blazing through the state.
‘I feel like I’m in a war zone’
On the edge of Paradise, a black lake of liquid asphalt stretches across two city blocks. The asphalt is drying out,
