California Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in three Northern California counties after a wildfire that has destroyed 64 homes advanced on a tiny community at the doorstep of a national park.
Firefighters scrambled Wednesday to head off the so-called Ponderosa fire, which had scorched 9,700 hectares, before it reached the outskirts of Mineral, a community of less than 200 people just south of Lassen National Volcanic Park.
Authorities prepared to evacuate Mineral as flames roared 25 metres high on the side of Highway 36, the main route into town, and burned through a canyon where firefighters struggled to make a stand. Crews also bulldozed a trench to serve as a last line of defence between the fire and the town as thick smoke and ash choked the air for miles.
"All the vegetation is ready to burn. Once the afternoon winds begin to blow up the canyon, you have what we call blow-up conditions," Chico Fire Division Chief Shane Lauderdale said.
"It pushes the firefighters out of the area they are working and goes over the [containment] line and creates situations where we have to back out."
Beth Glenn, whose family owns most businesses in tiny Mineral, said the town survived a fire that roared up the same canyon in the 1990s. She feared the Ponderosa blaze could be worse.