LOWER LAKE, Calif. (AP) — Blazes raging in forests and woodlands across California have taken the life of a firefighter and forced hundreds of people to flee their homes as crews continue to battle the flames from the air and the ground.
Twenty-three large fires, many sparked by lightning strikes, were burning across Northern California on Saturday, said Daniel Berlant, spokesman for the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Some 9,000 firefighters were working to subdue them, something made incredibly difficult by several years of drought that have dried out California.
“The conditions and fire behavior we’re seeing at 10 in the morning is typically what we’d see in late afternoon in late August and September,” said Nick Schuler, a division chief with Cal Fire.