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Agencies

The largest wildfire in California this year has decimated the Gold Rush town of Greenville.
The Dixie Fire is already the sixth biggest in the state’s history, and was still spreading thanks to gusting winds and record-low humidity.
This week it all-but wiped out the northern California mountain town, a settlement of a few hundred people dating back to the mid-1800s Gold Rush.
“We lost Greenville tonight,” US congressman Doug LaMalfa, who represents the area, said in an emotional Facebook video. “There’s just no words.”
The Dixie Fire – just one of a welter of blazes wracking the western United States – has been raging in the dry forests of northern California since mid-July, part of a global warming climate crisis that has brought sweltering heat and an alarming drought to the region.
It has now engulfed around 1,300 sq km (500 square miles). Almost a fifth of that area was added overnight Wednesday into Thursday.

The blaze is so big that it has been generating its own weather system.
“We did everything we could,” California fire department spokesman Mitch Matlow said. “Sometimes it’s just not enough.”
The fire’s heat had bent Greenville’s street lights to the ground, with only a few structures still standing.
A petrol station, a hotel and a bar were destroyed, as well as many buildings that were more than a century old.


No injuries or deaths were immediately reported.
The fire swept through the town on Wednesday afternoon, where the impact was devastating, said Jake Cagle, incident management team operations section chief.
He said firefighters were struggling with those not obeying evacuation orders, leading to their having to divert time and resources to rescue people in the path of the flames, even as they tried to deal with an extraordinary blaze.

“We have firefighters who are getting guns pulled out on them, because people don’t want to evacuate,” he said Thursday.
“It was a very tough day for all of our resources – there’s stuff out there that we didn’t want to see,” said Cagle.
Almost 5,000 personnel were involved in the battle to tame the blaze.
Wildfires threaten Olympics birthplace in Greece
But very low humidity and a parched landscape were offering ideal conditions for the fire to rage.
Control lines established by firefighters were breached overnight, with the fire growing “explosively” in places, according to incident commanders.
Authorities issued yet more evacuation orders on Thursday, telling residents of the towns of Taylorsville and Westwood that they needed to flee.

By late July, the number of acres burned in California was up more than 250 per cent from 2020 – itself the worst year of wildfires in the state’s modern history.
The Dixie Fire has evoked painful memories of the Paradise Fire, the deadliest blaze in California’s recent history.
Faulty power lines sparked the inferno, which swept through the northern town of Paradise in 2018, killing 86 people. Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s largest energy utility firm, was deemed responsible.
Lightning storm ignited ‘eye of fire’ in Gulf of Mexico
PG&E equipment is again being blamed for the Dixie Fire, after a tree fell on a power conductor the day the blaze began.
The utility announced in late July it will bury 16,000km of power lines in a massive bid to prevent its equipment from igniting more deadly wildfires.
Greenville itself is no stranger to fire disasters. A catastrophic blaze destroyed much of the town in 1881, and several major infernos have threatened residents in the intervening 140 years.
Agence France-Presse and Associated Press


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Natural disasters

‘We lost Greenville’: wildfire wipes out California Gold Rush town

The aftermath of the Dixie Fire in Greenville, California. Photo: AP

A home is engulfed in flames as the Dixie fire rages on in Greenville, California on August 5, 2021. - The largest wildfire in California has razed a small town, warping street lights and destroying historic buildings hours after residents were ordered to flee. Greenville, an Indian Valley settlement of a few hundred people dating back to the mid-1800s Gold Rush, was engulfed by flames as winds whipped the inferno towards the community, turning the sky orange. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)

TOPSHOT - A deer jumps onto a business property as the Dixie fire approaches downtown Greenville, California on July 23, 2021. - The Dixie fire, which started only a few miles from the deadly Camp fire, has churned through nearly150,000 acres and continues to burn towards rural communities. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)

A fire-damaged street sign marks Main Street in a decimated downtown Greenville, California during the Dixie fire on August 5, 2021. - The largest wildfire in California has razed a small town, warping street lights and destroying historic buildings hours after residents were ordered to flee. Greenville, an Indian Valley settlement of a few hundred people dating back to the mid-1800s Gold Rush, was engulfed by flames as winds whipped the inferno towards the community, turning the sky orange. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)

Canada heatwave: wildfire consumes Lytton, small town that hit record 49.6 degrees Celsius

Structures destroyed by wildfire in Lytton, British Columbia. Photo: AP

A view shows a wildfire seen from an airplane, in Lytton, British Columbia, Canada June 30, 2021 in this picture obtained from social media on July 1, 2021. Karin Schmidlin/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

Flames rise from a burning building along a street during a wildfire in Lytton, British Columbia, Canada June 30, 2021 in this still image obtained from a social media video on July 1, 2021. 2 RIVERS REMIX SOCIETY/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MUST CREDIT "2 RIVERS REMIX SOCIETY / VIMEO.2RMX.CA".

Martha Van Dyke of Lytton sits in her car with her cats, Tigger and Kona after a wildfire that raged through her town forced residents to evacuate, outside of Lytton, British Columbia, Canada July 1, 2021. REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier

Wildfires threaten Olympics birthplace in Greece, blaze near Turkey power plant contained

A wildfire approaches the Olympic Academy, foreground, in ancient Olympia, Greece, on Wednesday. Photo: AP

TOPSHOT - This photograph taken on August 4, 2021 shows smoke covering Athens centre, due to fires burning at the foot of Mount Parnes, 30 kilometres north of Athens. - Greek firefighters said in a statement that they hope to bring a forest fire blazing near Athens under control "in the coming hours". More than 500 firefighters, a dozen water-bombing planes and five helicopters have been battling the blazes outside the capital since August 3 afternoon. (Photo by LOUISA GOULIAMAKI / AFP)

An helicopter drops water during a wildfire in ancient Olympia, western Greece, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. Greece evacuated people in boats from an island beach Wednesday amid heavy smoke from a nearby wildfire and fire crews fight elsewhere to keep flames away from the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games as the country sweltered under a record heat wave. (Giannis Spyrounis/ilialive.gr via AP)

A man walk crosses a road in the vicinity of a forest fire close to the Kemerkoy Thermal Power Plant, at Oren in Milas, northen Turkey on August 4, 2021. - A Turkish thermal power plant on the Aegean Sea was being evacuated on August 4, as a wildfire that has raged across the country for the past week reached its edge.Rescuers used helicopters and water cannon, in a fitful fight to save a Turkish power plant from being engulfed by deadly wildfires testing the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP)

People watch a wildfire burning the forest in Turgut village, near tourist resort of Marmaris, Mugla, Turkey, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021. As Turkish fire crews pressed ahead Tuesday with their weeklong battle against blazes tearing through forests and villages on the country's southern coast, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government faced increased criticism over its apparent poor response and inadequate preparedness for large-scale wildfires.(AP Photo/Emre Tazegul)

A man uses a fire extinguisher in an attempt to help fight a wildfire in Varympompi suburb north of Athens, Greece, August 4, 2021. REUTERS/Giorgos Moutafis

News

World

United States & Canada


Evacuation orders widened in California as wildfires rage
Blaze lays waste to historic mining town of Greenville



Historic California town of Greenville in smouldering ruins after the state’s largest wildfire engulfed it.


Extreme weather

United States

Climate change

‘We lost Greenville’: wildfire wipes out California Gold Rush town

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Evacuation orders widened in California as wildfires rage Blaze lays waste to historic mining town of Greenville

Evacuation orders widened in California as wildfires rage

Blaze lays waste to historic mining town of Greenville