Days after wildfires left a deadly swatch of destruction in Northern California rural counties, new blazes are exploding to life and threatening more homes in what has become an endless summer of flame in the Golden State.
North of San Francisco, a fire threatened homes in an old ranching and farming area near Covelo. About 60 homes were ordered evacuated as the blaze erupted late Tuesday and winds whipped flames through brush, grass, oak, pine and fir near Mendocino National Forest, Mendocino County Undersheriff Matthew Kendall said.
"We're advised that the fire was threatening structures," he said.
The area was only about 65 kilometres north of where twin fires in Mendocino and Lake counties have burned an area nearly three times the size of San Francisco, destroyed seven homes and threatened 12,000 more.
The Lake County seat of Lakeport remained under evacuation orders and was a virtual ghost town, although people were allowed back home in several smaller communities as firefighters shored up containment lines. Despite progress, the fires were only 12 per cent contained.
Jessyca Lytle fled a fast-moving wildfire in 2015 that spared her property but destroyed her mother's memorabilia-filled Lake County home.
Lytle found herself listening to scanner traffic on Tuesday and fire-proofing her mother's new home as another wildfire advanced.
"Honestly, what I'm thinking right now is I just want this to end," Lytle said, adding that she was "exhausted in every way possible - physically, emotionally, all of that".
Paul Lew and his two boys, ages 13 and 16, evacuated Saturday from their Lakeport home.
"I told them to throw everything they care about in the back of the car," said Lew, 45. "I grabbed computers, cellphones, papers. I just started bagging all my paperwork up, clothes, my guitars."
Lew, who is divorced from Lytle, is camped out at the house in the nearby community of Cobb that she fled in 2015. He is watching over her chickens, sheep and other animals. With a laugh, he said repeated fire alerts have made him an emergency preparation expert.
"It's like three a year," he said. "It's kind of crazy."
To the east, another blaze Tuesday night raged through grassy cattle lands near Yuba City, covering more than 4 square kilometres in a few hours.
The area is mainly a ranching area of barns and other buildings and no evacuations were ordered, said Scott McLean of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The new fires erupted without warning and spread with shocking speed through forest and brush that have literally become tinder.
"It just goes on and on," McLean said.
