Ferocious wildfire devastates California mountain town

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — Earlier this summer, this small mountain town north of San Francisco opened its modest high school to residents fleeing an unusually ferocious wildfire nearby.

Now it is Middletown itself that has been evacuated — and gutted — by another blaze that shocked firefighters with its strength and speed.

The town’s small cluster of shops and cafes was spared, but behind them flames propelled by erratic winds zigzagged down leafy streets, torching some houses while sparing others. On Monday, some residents returned to find nothing left of their homes but concrete foundations and smoldering rubble.

One weeping woman embraced her mother where their family home once stood, surrounded by blacked appliances, metal furniture and ash. Beige homes trimmed in white stood untouched nearby.

“I’m in shock. I want to cry. I’m looking at my neighbors’ places, and they’re all gone, and I’m still here,” homeowner Jim Maurer said. “We’re just shaking our heads.”

Over the weekend, the blaze killed an elderly, disabled area resident who was trapped in her home.

The fire and another in the Gold Rush country of the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 120 miles to the southeast, were the worst of a dozen burning in the state. Between them, they have destroyed 535 homes and hundreds of other structures and displaced 23,000 people, Mark Ghilarducci, director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, told reporters.

Citing dry conditions from four years of drought, Ghilarducci called this summer’s fires some of the most volatile he’s seen in 30 years of emergency response work.

The fire that marauded through Middletown and other parts of rural Lake County, less than 100 miles north of San Francisco, was burning nearly unchecked, despite the efforts of fire crews.

Since starting Saturday, it has consumed more than 95 square miles.