‘Coming down like a blow torch’: Residents describe town nearly wiped out by wildfire
Residents described the frightening sight of a California wildfire tearing through the Yreka and Klamath River area, and footage shows a rural town nearly wiped out over the weekend.
“When that fire came over that ridge line, it had 100-foot flames for about five miles, and the wind was blowing it,” Roger Derry, 80, said in new AP video taken in the aftermath of the McKinney Fire. “It was coming down like a solid blow torch. There was nothing to stop it.”
Derry lives with his son of almost the same name, Rodger Derry, in the small town of Klamath River, not far from the Oregon border. Residents for 40 years, they know most of town’s 200 or so residents. Now, they’re one of the few families left.
More than 100 homes, sheds and other buildings have burned since the fire erupted Friday. At least four people have died.
A monsoonal rainstorm doused the McKinney Fire on Tuesday evening, quelling fire behavior on the deadly Northern California blaze while also introducing mudflow and flash flooding risks in nearby parts of Siskiyou County.
