Streets were reduced to rubble, over 175 structures were burned in Northern California wildfire as it continues to spread
The very huge wildfire that devastated the community in Northern California was believed by the authorities as arson, with the arrest of the suspect as a positive development.
The wildfire in the Northern California continues to spread after it destroyed more than 175 buildings and other structures which reduced the entire streets into smoldering rubble.
According to Northern California officials, only five percent of the 4,000 acres of land is contained by firefighters when the fire broke about 100 miles north of San Francisco.
Photos of the blaze show that the fire swept into Lower Lake, a town of about 1,200 people, where it burned buildings including a post office, a Habitat for Humanity office and a winery.
Thousands of people, where some of them already dubbed “fire survivors” after last year, fled as they awaited word on whether their homes and businesses were still standing. By Monday afternoon, the fire had destroyed at least 175 structures and threatened 1,500 more, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin said late Monday that Damin Pashilk, a county resident, had been arrested and booked on multiple counts of arson in connection with the Clayton fire and other fires in the area during the ast year.
For some evacuees at the shelter in Middletown, the arrest of Pashilk was the first good news in days, and the crowd burst into applause.
The fast-moving Clayton fire broke out late Saturday afternoon off Highway 29 and Clayton Creek Road, according to Cal Fire.
It’s unclear how arson investigators linked Pashilk to the blaze, or how the fire ignited. Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott said Pashilk had been under investigation for about a year.
Pashilk, 40, faces 17 counts of arson in connection with the Clayton fire and other recent fires. He was being held in the County Jail, according to the Sheriff.
The ferocious spread of the Clayton fire offers fresh evidence of how five years of unrelenting drought in California leave the state particularly vulnerable to destructive wildfires this year.