CNN reports 40,000 people have been evacuated as 2,200 firefighters, some from Santa Cruz County, battle the 20,000-acre Camp Fire.
Scanner radio monitors and media reports say the town of Paradise, population 2,600 is essentially gone. Paradise is located near Chico, 85 miles north of Sacramento. Reports were that fire was burning along almost every escape route, and between them as well.
Feather River Hospital has been reported as a loss (uncertain as to whether in part or in total); many, many, many residences have been lost. The estimate is 1,000 homes lost so far. At one point, scanner traffic noted that ‘every commercial building on Skyway, from Wagstaff down into Paradise, is on fire’. There are concerns the blaze will spread into Chico.
Multiple deaths seem likely in this incident; at one time or another up to 400 civilians were stranded in various parts of Paradise, unable to evacuate due to gridlock, fire, or both. The vast majority were successfully extracted; there were multiple burn injuries of significant extent reported at various times through the day Thursday.
East Chico is reportedly being evacuated from approximately Bruce Road east.
In the absence of Governor Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for the Camp Fire.
The Camp Fire is one of three major blazes in California this morning. Two more – the 10,000-acre Hill Fire and the 7,500- acre Woolsey Fire are burning in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. The Hill fire broke out yesterday near the site of the tragic bar shooting in Thousand Oaks earlier this week. The nearby Woolsey Fire threatens thousands of homes.
(Pamela Alley of the NorCal Fire Yahoo group contributed to this report)
