As reported on The Olympian, at least 720 homes in Northern California were destroyed by two wild fires, which also threatened thousands of other structures. Cal Fire said in a statement that "585 houses were destroyed by a blaze in Lake County. The fire that started Saturday is threatening another 9,000 structures. Another fire burning about 120 miles to the southeast in the Gold Rush country of the Sierra Nevada foothills has decimated 135 homes. And another 6,000 structures are on the path of the blaze in Amador and Calaveras Counties."
In a Yahoo News article, a 72-year-old disabled woman was found dead in the ruins of her home destroyed by the fast-moving wildfire. She has been identified as Barbara McWilliams, a retired teacher, who had settled in the Middletown area just the previous year.
As reported on My News 4, Jennifer Hittson, the old woman's caretaker, tells the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that "McWilliams had multiple sclerosis and had major physical disabilities that limited her ability to walk." About 3 in the afternoon, Hittson left McWilliams' home. Only then she realized "how serious the fire had become after getting home and called authorities to go help the woman." It was around 7:30 in the evening that deputies and officers responded to the area, but they were already too late. McWilliams' home had already been engulfed by the wild fire.
Officials stated at a news conference last Monday that "explosive blaze has damaged water distribution facilities and a massive complex of geothermal power plants known as the Geysers," ass cited in Yahoo News.
In the same article on Yahoo News, California Gov. Jerry Brown expressed his gratitude to the firefighters for their courage as they ""battle with nature in order to stop that fire and another that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced tens of thousands to evacuate." The governor, at the press conference, also said that "the fires are scary stuff exacerbated by climate change and a four-year drought." As reported on The Olympian, Ken Pimlott, the Fire Chief, said that "there have been 1,500 more fires than usual for this point in the year."
