The McKinney Fire, in a Klamath Mountains subrange west of Yreka, raced across 20,000 acres overnight Saturday and had devoured 52,498 acres as of Sunday evening, the largest fire now burning in California, state and federal fire agencies said. Crews had wrestled containment to 1%, but that was back down to 0% Sunday as flames charged uphill through tall grass, thick brush and dry timber.
Several homes along Highway 96 near the Klamath River were destroyed, although the dangerous conditions prevented a full assessment of damage, said Courtney Kreider, a spokesperson for the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office. About 400 structures were threatened as of Sunday, a number that authorities said could grow. About 3,000 people were under evacuation orders as of Sunday night, county emergency operations officials said.
"It started raining, and then the wind blew like 50 miles an hour," said Ian Slater, describing wind-driven flames that persuaded him to evacuate his trailer Saturday night at the Tree of Heaven Campground near the Klamath River, 12 miles northwest of Yreka. "The fire just ... moved like 3 miles to my direction." He grabbed his four hound dogs, two chickens and two pheasants and headed toward Yreka and safety.
Unpredictable winds presented a challenge to firefighters tackling the blaze, which ignited Friday afternoon, said Adrienne Freeman, a U.S. Forest Service spokesperson. She said about a dozen smaller spot fires, ranging up to 75 acres, had been sparking and spreading rapidly as Sunday's high climbed toward 100 degrees in nearby Yreka. The China 2 Fire, burning in the Klamath National Forest, along the 96 corridor to the west of the McKinney blaze ,ignited Saturday and scorched 1,652 acres as of Sunday evening.
"When you have this kind of convective activity, it becomes impossible to predict what the wind patterns are going to be," Freeman said. "It also is an extremely dangerous situation for firefighters." She said firefighters on Sunday had gotten "good work done," managing to keep the blaze from spreading as much as the day before, thanks in part to a heavy smoke inversion above.
A fire weather watch for a large swath of Northern California and Oregon was set for Monday, 11 a.m. through 11 p.m., after a red flag warning for fire danger that was up until 11 p.m. Sunday because of wind gusts and the prospect of isolated thunderstorms sparking new fires, the National Weather Service said.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation, as nearly 650 fire personnel battled it. They focused on protecting the Highway 96 corridor and the surrounding communities of Fort Jones and Yreka, the Siskiyou County seat.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Siskiyou County on Saturday.
Approximately 65 residents were housed at the Weed Community Center which was set up as an evacuation shelter in Weed, officials said. Communities under evacuation orders included Klamath River, Seiad Valley, Horse Creek and western parts of Yreka, while central Yreka was under evacuation warning, along with residents west of Interstate 5. A long stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail was closed Saturday, and hikers were encouraged to evacuate to the nearest town.
Slater said he'd left many belongings behind when he fled his campground trailer with his animals. "It was scary," he said of his evacuation ordeal. Now he said he was looking for shelter that would also allow animals.
"I'm not sure what I'm gonna do," he said Sunday. "I'm worried the fire is still spreading and coming to (Yreka), so I can't really stay at my friends' houses."
Roxanne Strangfeld, a Siskiyou County probation officer helping evacuees, said in a Facebook video that "there are quite a few people that are helping each other, which is a really wonderful thing in this time of stress."
Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a consumer alert warning Sunday against price gouging. State law prohibits businesses from increasing prices by more than 10% for essential services and supplies during a state of emergency.
"I strongly encourage anyone who believes they have been the victim of price gouging to report it to my office at oag.ca.gov/report or to your local authorities," Bonta said in a news release.
San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Emma Talley contributed to this report.
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