"It was just moving very, very fast, it was just picking and choosing what it wanted," said Knifong, who was back at his property Friday after the fire passed through. It had spared his home, but his neighbors down the way weren't so lucky.
At least 50 homes were destroyed and thousands of residents evacuated the Butte County town of Paradise, about 90 miles north of Sacramento, to escape the blaze that contributed to at least one death
- an elderly woman who suffered a heart attack while evacuating.
That blaze was just one of a series vexing firefighters across Northern California on Friday. A wildfire in Monterey County continued to chew through the Los Padres National Forest, and flames in the Santa Cruz County kept hundreds of residents away from their mountain homes.
Ruben Grijalva, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the Butte County fire was the most dangerous because it was moving toward Paradise on Friday, prompting officials to call for another round of precautionary evacuations for 4,500 people there. About 9,000 resident evacuated the area a day earlier, but officials had reopened roads to some of those homes Friday.
Only 20 percent of the fire was contained by Friday evening, and it had charred almost 36 square miles. Five firefighters had sustained minor injuries.
Shifting, persistent winds continued to stoke the fire late Friday, said Cal Fire spokesman Joshpae White. More wind was expected for Saturday.
"It's kind of a mess. You've got this wind moving back and forth. The winds are really squirrely. They're changing direction," White said.
White, one of the firefighters injured, said he was escorting reporters through the fire area in a pickup truck when the flames quickly began closing in. After safely evacuating the reporters, he helped nearby firefighters escape and was forced to drive through a wall of fire.
"It looked like a million blowtorches across the road," White said. "We were taking significant heat. The heat was so intense, the windshield began cracking."
White and another firefighter were treated for minor burns.
In recent days, hot temperatures, steady winds and tinder-dry vegetation have fueled the destructive blazes around the state.
In Santa Cruz County, firefighters got a handle on a wildfire that has scorched 1 square mile and burned at least 10 homes in the Bonny Doon community.
