Wildfires blaze across California Gold Country, ravage historic town

A series of lightning-induced wildfires swept through parts of two Northern California counties on Wednesday, prompting widespread evacuations and engulfing sections of a historic Gold Rush mining town that once housed thousands of Chinese immigrants.

Driven by strong winds, nearly two dozen separate fires have scorched over 13,000 acres (5,261 hectares) of dry grass, brush, and timber since being ignited by a lightning storm on Tuesday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The remote village of Chinese Camp, home to fewer than 100 residents in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California's Gold Country, was particularly affected by one of the fires.

A Reuters journalist on the ground reported that the blaze destroyed several homes in and around Chinese Camp, a historic town established by thousands of Chinese labourers in the mid-19th century during the Gold Rush.

The flames also destroyed two significant buildings, including an old stagecoach stop, and scorched a hilltop cemetery. However, the adjacent church, founded in 1854, was left untouched, said CalFire spokesperson Jaime Williams.

Other landmarks, including the Chinese Camp Store and Tavern, as well as the town's post office and its pagoda-style public school, survived the fire.

Evacuation orders remained in effect for the entire town and several other communities in Tuolumne and neighbouring Calaveras counties, with over 600 firefighting personnel working to contain the flames, CalFire reported.

The full extent of property damage and the number of evacuations had yet to be determined, but no immediate casualties had been reported.

"We are securing all available resources — including support from our federal partners — to combat this expanding lightning complex fire in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties," Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement on Wednesday.

At least two evacuation shelters have been set up for people displaced by the fires, as well as shelters for livestock and smaller domestic animals.

Electricity crews were working diligently to restore power, which had been knocked out by fire damage to power lines, transformers, and utility poles.

The 22 fires that make up the TCU September Lightning Complex fires are among the largest of approximately a dozen wildfire incidents reported across the state by CalFire on Wednesday. However, they are dwarfed by the destructive scale of the Los Angeles fires in January, which claimed at least 31 lives and destroyed nearly 16,000 homes.

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