California's Napa County wildfire sparks evacuations, damage

[July 02, 2014]  (Reuters) - A fast-spreading wildfire was sweeping through a remote swath of California's Napa Valley on Tuesday, forcing evacuations and damaging structures, fire officials and local media said.

The so-called Butts Fire, which erupted on Tuesday afternoon, had burned about 2,700 acres in Napa County's Pope Valley near Lake Berryessa and was only 30 percent contained by the late evening, according to the Cal Fire website.

No injuries have been reported and the cause was under investigation.

An area winery posted a picture on Twitter of a charcoal plume of smoke stretching out against a bright azure sky, local media reported.

Some 180 homes in a subdivision were under mandatory evacuation orders, several roads were closed, and five structures had been damaged, Cal Fire officials said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.

More than 300 firefighters aided by engines, bulldozers, and water-dropping aircraft were fighting the blaze, the newspaper said.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson)

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