A wind-driven wildfire destroyed much of the historic California mountain town of Greenville on Wednesday, burning down several homes and forcing thousands to evacuate. Several videos doing the rounds on social media showed buildings and vehicles engulfed in flames. Among the buildings destroyed in the fire were a former sheriff’s office, restaurants, saloons and gas stations.
As the fire ripped through the town, Plumas County Sheriff’s Office issued a Facebook posting warning residents: “You are in imminent danger and you MUST leave now!
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No injuries have been reported so far. Local authorities said there were still a lot of people in the town, which has over 800 residents.
“Right now, there are still a lot of people unfortunately in Greenville that did not evacuate. And so, we are having to deal with that … and get all those folks out,” said Jake Cagle, the operations sections chief for California’s fire incident management team told CNN.
Recalling the ordeal, Greenville resident Teresa Clark told local television station KXTV, “Within two hours, our town was gone. We were sitting outside town about a mile away, and you could hear propane tanks just exploding.”
The wildfire, which has been raging in the area since July 14, is at 0% containment. According to Cal Fire, the wildfire has already consumed 278,000 acres.
Fire spokesperson Mitch Matlow told CBS News on Wednesday said that the fire has “grown by thousands of acres and an additional 4,000 people were ordered to evacuate, bringing nearly 26,500 people in several counties under evacuation orders.”
Governor Gavin Newsom released a statement saying, “Five-hundred-eighty-thousand acres have burned. Put that in perspective: Last year, it was about 260,000 acres, so more than double the acres burned so far year to date, and we’re just, you know, we’re just getting started.”