TUOLUMNE COUNTY, Calif. (AP) — One of nearly two dozen fires burning across Northern California on Wednesday scorched homes in a Gold Rush town settled in the 1850s by thousands of Chinese miners driven out of a nearby camp.
The quick-moving fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills threatened the few remaining historic structures in Chinese Camp, forced the evacuation of its roughly 100 residents and closed a highway that's a main route between San Francisco and Yosemite National Park.
It’s not clear yet whether any of the town’s handful of Gold Rush era structures -- including a post office and a Roman Catholic church -- were damaged in the fire that erupted Tuesday and continued burning without any containment.
A large number of lightning strikes early Tuesday set off at least 22 fires that have burned more than 19 square miles (50 square kilometers) in Calaveras, Tuolumne and Stanislaus counties, said Emily Kilgore, a spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the state’s chief fire agency.
The fires are spread across the region about 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of San Francisco. There have been no reports of injuries, but several structures were destroyed in two of the fires, Kilgore said Wednesday. Damage assessments have not been completed.
Many of the fires are in remote and rugged areas, some with very difficult access, Kilgore said.
“There still may be fires that haven’t been discovered yet,” Kilgore said, warning that more evacuations may be necessary. Temperatures were expected to be in the 90s over the next few days with little rain in sight.
The largest of the fires has burned about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) and is centered around Chinese Camp, where at least five homes burned in the town with a mix of freestanding and mobile homes.
Outside one house Tuesday night, seven people moved large tree branches away and shoveled sand onto the fire in a desperate attempt to keep the blaze from spreading from a house next door until firefighters arrived. A recreational vehicle on the property was damaged.
Chinese Camp, now a pass-through for tourists traveling to Yosemite, flourished in the 1850s as a stagecoach stop and supply hub for mining camps during the Gold Rush.
Thousands of Chinese came to California during the Gold Rush and faced persecution that included an exorbitant Foreign Miners Tax designed to drive them away from mining.
The town grew as Chinese miners who were driven out of a nearby camp arrived, according to Visit Tuolumne County. Originally called Camp Washington, its name was soon changed to reflect the thousands of people from China who settled there.
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Brumfield reported from Cockeysville, Maryland. Associated Press reporter John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
