YREKA, Calif. (AP) – Two bodies were found inside a charred vehicle in a driveway in the wildfire zone of a California wildfire that was among thousands of homes threatened Monday in the western U.S. , officials said. Hot, blustery weather and lightning storms threaten to increase the danger of wildfires continuing to grow,
The McKinney wildfire in northern California, near the state line with Oregon, has exploded in size to nearly 225 square kilometers after it broke out in the Klamath National Forest on Friday, fire officials said. It’s California’s largest wildfire of the year so far, and officials have yet to determine the cause.
The vehicle and the bodies were found Sunday morning in the driveway of a residence near the remote Klamath River community, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Nearly 5,000 homes and other structures were threatened and an unknown number of buildings have burned, said Adrienne Freeman, spokeswoman for the US Forest Service.
The smoky fire cast a strange, orange-brown hue in a neighborhood where a brick chimney was surrounded by debris and burned vehicles on Sunday. Flames torched trees along state Route 96 and raced up hillsides within sight of homes.
Valerie Linfoot’s son, a firefighter, called to say his family’s home of three decades on the Klamath River had burned down. Linfoot said her husband worked as a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service for years, and the family did everything they could to prepare their home for a wildfire, including installing a metal roof lic and the cutting of trees and tall grass around the property.
“It was as safe as we could make it, and it was so dry and so hot and the fire was going so fast,” Linfoot told the Bay Area News Group. He said his neighbors have also lost their homes.
“It’s a beautiful place. And from what I’ve seen, it’s just decimated. It’s absolutely destroyed,” he told the newsgroup.
The fire crews on the ground were trying to prevent the fire from approaching the town of Yreka, with about 7,500 inhabitants. The fire was about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) away on Monday.
A second, smaller fire in the region, sparked by dry lightning on Saturday, threatened the small California community of Seiad Valley.
Freeman said “there has been significant damage and loss along the Highway 96 corridor” that runs parallel to the Klamath River and is one of the few highways in and out of the region.
He added: “But how much damage is still being assessed.”
Erratic thunderstorms were expected to move across Northern California again on Monday with lightning threatening to spark new fires in bone-dry vegetation, forecasters said. A day earlier, storms caused flash flooding that damaged roads in Death Valley National Park and the mountains east of Los Angeles.
In northwestern Montana, winds picked up Monday afternoon on a wildfire burning in forested land west of Flathead Lake, forcing fire managers to ground all aircraft and led the Lake County Sheriff’s Office to begin evacuating residents in the northeast corner of the fire.
The fire was producing a lot of smoke, creating visibility problems for aircraft, said Sara Rouse, a spokeswoman for the fire management team.
The fire, which started Friday afternoon near the town of Elmo on the Flathead Indian Reservation, measured 20 square miles (52 square kilometers), fire officials said.
The Moose Fire in Idaho has burned more than 85 square miles (220 square kilometers) in the Salmon-Challis National Forest while threatening homes, mining operations and fisheries near the town of Salmon. It was 23% contained on Monday.
And a wildfire that broke out in northwestern Nebraska prompted evacuations and destroyed or damaged several homes near the small town of Gering. The Carter Canyon Fire started Saturday as two separate fires that merged. It was contained around 30% early Monday.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Saturday, allowing him more flexibility to make emergency response decisions and recovery efforts and tap into federal aid.
Scientists have said climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the past three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
The US Forest Service closed a 177-kilometer (110-mile) section of the famed Pacific Crest Trail in northern California and southern Oregon. Sixty hikers in that area were helped to evacuate Saturday, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon, which assisted in the effort.
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Weber reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press reporter Amy Hanson in Helena, Montana; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; and Keith Ridler in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.