Update: Mudslides adding to misery of McKinney Fire victims and firefighters
KLAMATH RIVER — A torrent of water, mud and debris knocked out a bridge near Humbug Road within McKinney Fire evacuation zone, injuring a private contractor battling the massive blaze.
The Siskiyou County sheriff's department said the contractor was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
"With the rainfall also comes hazardous debris such as mud, downed trees and rockfalls," forest service officials said in their Wednesday morning briefing.
Overnight, one to three inches of rain fell on the denuded areas along the eastern portion of the fire zone. It was a blessing for firefighters battling the flames, but also added another layer of danger.
The runoff swelled Whitney Creek, filling it with fallen trees and swift moving water.
Meanwhile, the search continued Wednesday for more victims amid the rubble of the once scenic hamlet of Klamath River.
Roger Derry, 80, and his son have lived together there for more than 40 years. They know most of the town's 200 or so residents.
Now, they're one of the few families left after California's largest and deadliest wildfire of the year raged through the modest homes and stores of the riverside town.
"It's very sad. It's very disheartening," Derry said. "Some of our oldest homes, 100-year-old homes, are gone. It's a small community. Good people, good folks, for the most part, live here and in time will rebuild. But it's going to take some time now."
Four local residents have also died in the fire. Two bodies were found in the burned out remains of separate residences along State Route 96. Two other victims were found inside a charred car that was in a residential driveway.
"It's really tragic when a fire gets up and moves this fast and basically takes out a community. And that's what happened in the Klamath River area," Mike Lindbery, a spokesperson with the fire's incident management team.
The McKinney Fire that erupted last Friday remained out of control, despite some progress as firefighters took advantage of thunderstorms that dumped rain that temporarily took a bit of heat out of the parched, scorched region not far from the Oregon border.
The area saw another thunderstorm Tuesday that dumped heavy rain and swelled rivers.
The fire has burned more than 88 square miles and is the largest of several wildfires burning in the Klamath National Forest.
The fire didn't grow on Tuesday, and fire officials said crews were able to use bulldozers to carve firebreaks along a ridge to protect homes and buildings in the county seat of Yreka.
McKinney Fire & Yeti Complex Incident
But several thousand people remained under evacuation orders, 100 buildings ranging from homes to greenhouses have burned.
The destruction of a small community has sadly become a real possibility as wildfires become fiercer in the Western United States.
Just four years ago, a massive blaze in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California virtually razed the Butte County town of Paradise, killing 85 people.
Scientists have said climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
When it began, the McKinney Fire was only a couple hundred acres and firefighters thought they would quickly have it under control. But then, a thunderstorm cell came in with ferocious wind gusts that within hours had pushed it into an unstoppable conflagration.
Roger Derry and his son, whose name is spelled Rodger Derry, decided not to evacuate when the fire broke out and said their home, which they'd tried to safeguard by trimming away nearby bushes, survived. Firefighters also showed up and dug firebreaks around the neighborhood.
But they could see the fire as it tore its way through the places around them.
"When that fire came over that ridgeline, it had 100-foot flames for about 5 miles and the wind was blowing. It was coming down like a solid blowtorch," Roger Derry said. "There was nothing to stop it,"
The fire destroyed most of the homes, including those in a trailer park, along with the post office, community hall and other scattered businesses. The cause hasn't been determined.
