Weather helps firefighters
Associated Press – June 25, 2024 / 07:42 AM | Articles: 494056
Photo: Cal Fire/Butte County
The Apache Fire was approaching the Palermo, California, area on Monday evening.
Updated 7:42am
Improved weather conditions helped firefighters on Tuesday as they battled a wildfire in rural Northern California that was threatening the community of Palermo, near the site of the state's deadliest wildfire six years ago.
The fire grew to about a square mile (2.6 square kilometers) in the first few hours of Monday evening but died down overnight and is now 15 percent contained, according to Capt. Dan Collins of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Winds had died down and a cooling sea breeze was bringing “conditions in our favour this morning,” he said, and flights were asked to expedite operations.
Evacuation orders were issued in several areas, but Collins didn't know how many people were affected. Two unidentified buildings were destroyed and one firefighter sustained minor injuries.
Original 5:31am
Officials in a rural northern California town have ordered evacuations as a fast-spreading fire threatens the community of Palermo, near the site of the state's deadliest wildfire six years ago.
The blaze covered about one square mile (2.6 square kilometers) in the first few hours after it was first reported on Monday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
The cause of the blaze, dubbed the “Apache Fire,” is under investigation. Two smaller fires also broke out.
Palermo's population was approximately 9,400 as of the 2020 census. The town is located about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of Sacramento.
Paradise is part of Butte County, where the town is located, and in 2018 the worst wildfire in California's history killed 85 people and destroyed 11,000 homes.
