LAKE ISABELLA, Calif. — Firefighters in Central California continued to battle a wildfire Sunday that killed at least two people, destroyed or damaged more than 225 homes and threatened thousands more.
Authorities feared more victims would be found as firefighters combed neighborhoods burned to the ground by the fast-moving Erskine fire roaring in Kern County, about 40 miles northeast of Bakersfield.
The fire burned almost 60 square miles since it began Thursday and was 10% contained Sunday, Fire Operations Chief Joe Reyes said. He said firefighters were working to set up a perimeter. Aided by relatively light winds, he said the fire could be under control by Monday morning. Full containment likely remained days away.
"It's looking real good," Reyes said. "Assuming we don't get some wind event."
At least a half-dozen communities were evacuated as a precaution, and an estimated 2,500 homes were threatened.
The area's brush and undergrowth, parched by drought, burned like kindling, residents said. More than 1,700 firefighters were battling the blaze.
Everett Evans, 45, told the Associated Press he fled as the fire swept quickly down a mountainside toward his South Lake mobile home.
“When you hear a freight train, it’s time to leave," he told AP. "You could hear it, you could see it, you could smell it."
A couple fleeing the blaze was found dead Friday. Authorities said a third body may have been found, but identifying it even as human was not immediately possible because the remains were so burned.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for the county. A federal fire management assistance grant means about 75% of the cost of fighting the blaze should be picked up by the federal government.
"We have a monster out there that might not be as bad as it was two days ago, but the potential is there," Mark Savage, a Kern County fire captain, said late Saturday.
