WEED, Calif. — Residents whose homes burned Friday in the Mill fire in the Northern California town of Weed described an inferno that tore through neighborhoods in minutes Friday and took virtually everything they owned.
The disastrous blaze, fueled by a punishing heat wave and gusty winds, climbed Saturday to 3,921 acres with 20% containment. About 4,000 firefighters have been deployed, with crews arriving throughout the night and scrambling to wall off the fast-moving blaze from homes and other structures.
On Saturday morning, dozens of homes flattened to rubble by the intensity of the flames lay smoldering under a thick haze of smoke on either side of Highway 97 north of Weed’s downtown, cars and pickup trucks scattered throughout, sitting on bare rims with their tires burned away.
