Latest information. Heres a live picture from sky 7hd over a geothermal plant near st. Helena which has been damaged by the fire. Apparently cooling towers have been lost. You can see the scorched earth around the facility in st. Helena. Firefighters say the fire is just jumping so quickly because of the winds theyre contending with through the area. You can see smoke rising from inside of the power plant. We know the winds are bad. Its warm. And of course, four years of drought has created a situation that is just treacherous. This is what we had feared all summer long. That a fire like this might take hold, and that is certainly what happened in this case. Now lets go to cornell bernard, live in middletown. Residents lost a lot of homes in. Reporter its trulying extraering. So many homes are gone after this fire storm engulfed much of middletown. Im standing in what used to be the driveway of a home here on as you can see the shells of appliances, barbecue, part of the the ferocious
Burning. Our abc7 news now community is sharing incredible photos with us. Look at this photo from kelly, giving a last look at her home before she and her family were evacuated. Kerr nell bernard begins Team Coverage live a look at the die instruction left behind by the fire. Just surreal, cornell. Reporter the fire storm was so intense it reduced neighborhoods like this to complete rubble. Is virtually unrecognizable. Were here on it was wall of fire behind us when we left. Scariest thing ever. Im still in shock. Kimberly harper feels lucky to be alive. All of our houses are gene. Destroying her home october cobb mt. Along with her two sons houses. This middletown home belongs to a friend but it alsoen burned to the ground. Everyone is safe but the family pet vanished during the chaos. My cat, i just dont want him to suffer. The ferocious wall of flames moved toward middletown like freight train. The total number of homes lost will be staggering. As far as an estimate of homes, weari
Those first 24 hours, we were in life saving mode. We went around fire, and there were so many looichs oives to s homes evacuated, cars on the road burned, and people trying to leave, and fire engines were working, and the Law Enforcement getting everyone out of homes president. Were just learning that Governor Brown will join cal fire officials tomorrow at a press Conference Following a private briefing at cal fire state operating center. Well, its been a chaotic terrifyi ining situation all ovs we tweeted a photograph at 8 00 p. M. Of firefighters setting backfires. We are now live from lower lake with more. Reporter the battle against the valley fire continues. Let me tell you, just beyond this roadblock, we saw the cal fire crews trying to get out ahead of this fire by setting those backfires. Meanwhi meanwhile, theres thousands of residents remaining evacuated, many unsure if they have a home to go back to. As the wildfire continues to grow, fire crews are still fighting. This sce
Had minutes to grab what they could and leave. And as the fire continues to burn into the morning, the residents of middletown are left be a skelton of skeleton of a town, driving through our crew says it looked like a bomb had gone off and entire neighborhoods were rush and ash. Rubble and ash. The flames is intense it melted the flames so intense it melted the tires off cars. Vehicles pulled off to the side that were on fire, multiple structures that were on fire. Apartment complexes that were on fire. Like a matchbook, just boom. A bunch of black smoke just covering up behind me. It was like something you see in the movies you know what i mean . It was terrifying. Reporter now the valley fire is the fifth major wildfire in lake county this summer. And by far the worst within 12 hours the flames had burned through 40,000 acres. That fire right now is currently up to about 50,000 acres probably bring and urostyle possibly growing. We do know that four other firefighters were injured i
Have been extended to clear lake, riviere yea and soda also riviera and soda bay and also from kelseyville to middletown. Kpix 5s cate cauguiran is in middletown where a whole neighborhood has been virtually wiped out. Unbelievable. Reporter it is absolutely heartbreaking here. Instead, they will have to look at this. This is all thats left from this fire that has just ripped through the this area, we know that the valley fire so aggressive and fast burning, neighbors only had minutes to grab what they could and then thread to leave. They had to leave. As the fire continues to burn into the morning the residents of middletown are left with a skeleton of autoing and driving through our kpix 5 crew says it looked like a bomb had gone off. Entire neighborhoods here were reduced to rubble and ash, the flames so intense it momented the tires off of melts the tires off of cars. Multiple structures that were on fire. Apartment complexes that were on fire. Like a match book. It just boom. As m