2 Calif. wildfires prompt more than 1,000 to flee

OAKHURST, Calif. -- Two out-of-control wildfires in California forced hundreds of residents to flee from their homes on Sunday, including one near a lakeside resort town that has burned 21 structures, authorities said.

The blaze, sparked shortly after 1:30 p.m. near Bass Lake in Central California, prompted authorities to evacuate about 1,000 residents out of 400 homes, Madera County Sheriff's spokeswoman Erica Stuart said.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said flames damaged or destroyed 21 structures. The Fresno Bee reports one neighborhood was hit especially hard, with several homes turned to ash and smoldering embers.

"This is gut-wrenching," CalFire Battalion Chief Chris Christopherson told the newspaper. "It makes you sick."

The fire started off a road outside of Oakhurst, a foothill community south of the entrance to Yosemite National Park, and made a run to the edge of Bass Lake. Stoked by winds, it quickly charred at least 320 acres, CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant said.

The fire was 20 percent contained.

The lakeside area is a popular destination throughout the year. There were no reports of the blaze, which is 20 percent contained, affecting the park.

About a thousand people have been evacuated in Oakhurst because of the Courtney Fire.

The Red Cross opened a shelter at the Oakhurst Community Center.

"It's scary. I don't know what to do," Tammie Sterling told CBS Fresno affiliate KGPE-TV.

Sterling just moved to the area. She says her dogs barking alerted her something was wrong.

"I grabbed my husband's computer, some files, checkbooks, my dogs, some clothes and got in the car," Sterling said.

With two minutes to evacuate, Betty Conner left with the one thing she couldn't replace: her kids' pictures.

"It's real scary, and I just hope everybody will pray for my neighbors and if they need help," she told KGPE. "I hope they'll send it, because a lot of them will need help with their houses burning," Conner said

The area is a popular destination throughout the year. There were no reports of the blaze affecting the park.

"We have a lot of full-time residents as well as renters and people with vacation homes here," Stuart said.

The destructive fire led Gov. Jerry Brown to secure a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover 75 percent of the cost of fighting the fire, state officials said.

Farther north, a wildfire about 60 miles east of Sacramento forced the evacuation of 133 homes. El Dorado County Sheriff's officials said residents of another 406 homes were being told to prepare to flee.

Berlant said the blaze started in a remote area Saturday, but exploded on Sunday when it reached a canyon full of thick, dry brush. It has blackened 4 square miles, and was 10 percent contained.

Meanwhile, in Southern California, evacuation orders for 200 homes in Orange County's Silverado Canyon were lifted late Sunday as firefighters contained 50 percent of a wildfire.

The residents were evacuated after the fire broke out Friday. The U.S. Forest Service downgraded the fire's size from 2-1/2 square miles to 1-1/2 square miles due to better mapping of the blaze.

Six firefighters have suffered minor injuries, many of them heat-related as the region baked under triple-digit temperatures.

A heat wave was expected to last through Tuesday in Southern California, and a smoke advisory was in effect for parts of Riverside and Orange counties.

Berlant said crews were making progress on two other wildfires that broke out Saturday in Northern California.

A wildfire in the Sierra Nevada foothills about halfway between Sacramento and Reno burned 250 acres, destroyed two homes and three outbuildings. The burned homes were in Alta Sierra, a community of some 6,000 people about five miles south of Grass Valley.

Hundreds of homes remained threatened by the fire, reports CBS Sacramento.

A 417-acre blaze in Mendocino County destroyed five structures and five outbuildings, according to CalFire. It was 50 percent contained.