The blaze hit Greenville from two angles and firefighters already were in the town trying to save it but first they had to risk their lives to save people who had refused to evacuate by loading people into cars to get them out, fire officials said.GREENVILLE, Plumas County (CBS SF) - A wall of wind-whipped flames from the Dixie Fire roared into the Plumas County community of Greenville Wednesday night, igniting homes as firefighters desperately attempted to rescue residents who had failed to obey orders to evacuate. Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. Heat waves and historic drought tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West. "We're seeing truly frightening fire behavior," said Chris Carlton, supervisor for Plumas National Forest. The winds are kind of changing direction on us every few hours," said Capt. On Thursday, the weather and towering smoke clouds produced by the fire's intense, erratic winds kept firefighters struggling to put firefighters at shifting hot spots. No deaths or injuries were reported but the fire continued to threaten more than 10,000 homes. The blaze exploded on Wednesday and Thursday through timber, grass and brush so dry that one fire official described it as "basically near combustion." Dozens of homes had already burned before the flames made new runs. No injuries or deaths have been reported. The fire's cause was under investigation, but Pacific Gas & Electric has said it may have been sparked when a tree fell on one of the utility's power lines. That's 676 square miles (1,751 square kilometers) - moving the blaze from the state's sixth-largest wildfire ever to its third-largest overnight. The Dixie Fire had consumed about 432,813 acres, according to an estimate released Friday morning. The three-week-old Dixie Fire was one of 100 active, large fires burning in 14 states, most in the West where historic drought has left lands parched and ripe for ignition. There was no containment and about 6,000 people were ordered to evacuate in Placer and Nevada counties, state fire officials said. 100 homes and buildings charred in yet another wildfireĪbout a two-hour drive south, officials said some 100 homes and other buildings burned in the fast-moving River Fire that broke out Wednesday near Colfax, a town of about 2,000. "My heart is crushed by what has occurred there," said Johns, a lifelong Greenville resident. Officials had not yet assessed the number of destroyed buildings, but Plumas County Sheriff Todd Johns estimated on Thursday that "well over" 100 homes had burned in and near the town. "At first you think, 'It's OK, I have the negatives.' And then you realize, 'Oh. There is a photo I keep visualizing in my mind of my son when he was 2. "My grandmother's dining room chairs, my great-aunt's bed from Italy. She managed to grab some photos off the wall, her favorite jewelry and important documents but couldn't help but think of the family treasures left behind. We've lost our home, my business, our whole downtown area is gone," said Gorman, who heeded evacuation warnings and left town with her husband a week and-a-half ago as the Dixie Fire approached. A church marquee stands among buildings destroyed by the Dixie Fire in the Sierra Nevada town of Greenville on Thursday.
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