by Jack Lee
It’s hard to keep up with the losses, but I only within the last 4 hours we were up to about 10,000 acres consumed and about 35 homes lost. The fire has spread close to the Town of Paradise and evacuations are occurring in the area. The Neighborhood Church Shelter is filled to capacity and a new shelter is being opened at PV High School.
Many roads are closed and for an update and locations see the ER interactive map.
Got a guest bedroom available? It would be a kind act to offer your home to one of the many individuals forced from their homes. Just a thought.
Neighborhood Church behind Lowes or PV are two evacuation centers where you could check.
The Governor has declared a state of emergency and strike teams (fire fighters) are being called in from all over the state, as far away as San Diego and bordering states. This is now the largest fire in California and it is far from over. I’ve been watching the borate bombers flying over my house since this fire started and they’ve been going almost continuously, even late at night. I can only imagine how tired the air crews are at this point. Fortunately the airport is less than 7 minutes flight time from the fire.
The Butte College campus was touched by fire and much of the surround open land is blackened, however no Butte College structures have been touched.
Wind conditions at this time are favoring firefighters who are doing mop up of hot spots east of Butte College and fighting the wildfire to halt it’s path if destruction.
For local news on shelters and fire updates dial KPAY or use the interactive news online here in the ER. The media is doing their best to relay emergency bulletins.