With late-season wildfires increasingly common in California, the twinning of the two catastrophes is becoming an alarmingly regular fear. Officials in both Northern and Southern California are planning this week for the possibility of a second set of disasters while still battling the flames of the first.
Two weeks ago, emergency crews frantically knocked on doors in Paradise, warning California residents to flee as the Camp Fire, the state’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire blaze, ran uncontrolled toward the town. It has claimed 79 lives with more fatalities expected, and destroyed more than 11,000 homes since it began.
Now, less than two weeks later, state Cal Fire teams are knocking again on remaining doors in the remote Northern California canyons where the fire burned through, warning residents of a new and imminent danger.