Iran Press/ America: The Mill Fire, which prompted the evacuation of Weed and smaller communities to the north, had grown to 3,921 acres with 20% containment, said Cal Fire spokesman Robert Foxworthy.
Weed Mayor Kim Greene said on Saturday that most of the damage she is aware of was in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood and Lake Shastina, with reports of 100 homes destroyed in Lincoln Heights.
“They seem to have been hit the worst,” Greene said. “From the map, I saw last night, it looks like the majority of the homes in Lincoln Heights are gone. We’re just trying to assess that right now.”
Cal Fire Siskiyou Unit Chief Phil Anzo gave the Associated Press the same estimate, adding that crews worked all day and night to protect structures in Weed and Carrick, a subdivision to the east.
“There’s a lot at stake on that Mill Fire,” he said. “There’s a lot of communities, a lot of homes there.” Two people were taken to Mercy Medical Center Mount Shasta, according to the AP. One was in stable condition and the other was transferred to UC Davis Medical Center’s burn unit in Sacramento.
Meanwhile, the Mountain Fire had grown to 3,395 acres in a wooded, mountainous area west of Yreka early Saturday, according to Cal Fire. In the town of Gazelle, Colleen Brown and her husband, Steve, had a long Friday night. She said they watched “dozer after dozer after dozer” hauled behind big rigs head up the hill toward the Mountain Fire, burning on the hills west of town. They could see trees catching fire on the hillside. “You could see the orange glow,” she said. “We were very nervous last night.”
As a giant plume builds to the west Saturday morning, she said they would be ready to leave at a moment’s notice if the wind starts blowing the fire toward Gazelle. In the sparsely populated hills west of Gazelle, dozens of bulldozers, fire trucks, and other heavy equipment were parked on a private ranch property gearing up for the pending afternoon firefight as planes and helicopters flew overhead already attacking the fire from the sky.
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