Fire, Northern California | featured news

California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in three Northern California counties on Wednesday after a wildfire that has already destroyed 64 homes advanced with 75-foot flames on a tiny community at the doorstep of a national park.

Dozens of buildings, many of them likely homes, have been destroyed in recent days in a fire burning outside the Northern California community of Manton, fire officials said Tuesday night. Fire crews assessing the rural area determined Tuesday that 50 buildings had been destroyed, state fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said. The count included buildings burned since the fire began, but officials did not say when the structures were destroyed.

Crews made progress overnight against a Northern California wildfire that has grown to more than 4 1/2 square miles and forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes. The Wye Fire east of the community of Clearlake Oaks in Lake County was 25 percent contained early Monday morning. State fire officials say it is threatening 480 homes in Spring Valley and has already destroyed three structures. It was not immediately clear whether those were homes or outbuildings.

A raging wildfire in northern California scorched more than 5,000 acres and hundreds of firefighters struggled to bring it under control Friday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.