Top Stories
- Siskiyou County sheriff’s reports of fires at the Roseburg Forest Products facility in Weed obtained by The Chronicle show a number of different fires at the lumber mill. By Matthias Gafni
- California has only about one-tenth as many human fire lookouts as in a bygone age. But they still play a crucial role. By Gregory Thomas
- A large ridge of high pressure is building into California, and newsroom meteorologist Gerry Díaz shares what its impacts on the state’s weather pattern will be this weekend. By Gerry Díaz
- Last weekend’s storms provided a healthy amount of rain to parts of the parched Bay Area and Northern California - helping temporarily reduce the risk from wildfires by giving them less dry fuel to feed on. By Kellie Hwang
- Officials at the Northern California utility told state regulators this week that culture change at the company is making wildfires less of a threat. By Kurtis Alexander
- After an unusually cold and wet middle of September, newsroom meteorologist Gerry Díaz shares what happens to our temperatures now that a desert high pressure heads west to California. By Gerry Díaz
- It’s the last day of stormy weather for the week in California, and newsroom meteorologist Gerry Díaz explains what the chances for rain are before the storm departs the Bay Area. By Gerry Díaz
- California’s first Clean Air Center opened in San Francisco on Tuesday. Eventually, the Bay Area is expected to host more than 300 sites where residents can go to escape wildfire smoke. By Kurtis Alexander
- Containment of the Mosquito Fire in Placer and El Dorado counties jumped to 39%, authorities said. They credit rains and the efforts of more than 2,700 firefighters. By Michael Cabanatuan
- Firefighters continued to make progress Friday night against the Mosquito Fire — the largest California wildfire this year — but anticipate that upcoming windy weather will make the battle more challenging before an unusual September rainstorm... By Danielle Echeverria
- A vegetation fire sparked in Oakland just off Interstate 580 and rapidly blew up into spot fires that spread to five homes on Friday afternoon, prompting a panicked evacuation as firefighters battled to stop the blaze from burning more buildings. By Sarah Ravani, Danielle Echeverria and Jordan Parker
- Meteorologists predict the rain could provide some respite, though it will be temporary. By Rachel Swan
- Three AI-powered cameras are being monitored 24-7 in Napa Valley. By Jess Lander
- Clouds of smoke, soot and ash grew hundreds of feet per year across the West, researchers found. By Jack Lee
- Despite the historic heat wave that scorched most of the state just a week ago, newsroom meteorologist Gerry Díaz explains Thursday’s unusual spring-like forecast for parts of the Bay Area. By Gerry Díaz
- Marilyn Hilliard, 73, and Lorenza Glover, 65, of Weed (Siskiyou County) were believed to have died in early September as the Mill Fire ripped through the small community. By Jordan Parker
- An unusual storm system is slamming into California this weekend, and meteorologist Gerry Díaz shares a forecast of possible events that it may bring to the Bay Area and Sierra Nevada. By Gerry Díaz
- The light overnight showers in Northern California did not seem to help firefighting efforts as the Mosquito Fire continued to grow, weather officials said. By Jessica Flores
- The blaze, called the Dutch Fire, ignited near Interstate 80 and Ridge Road around 3:45 p.m. Tuesday and caused the temporary shutdown of Interstate 80 in both directions. By Jordan Parker
- The Mosquito Fire continued growing, but firefighters took advantage of cooler weekend weather to extend containment lines. More than 11,000 people remain evacuated and nearly 6,000 homes in two counties are threatened. By Michael Cabanatuan
- Throughout the weekend, wildfire smoke — much of it billowing from the Mosquito Fire in Placer and El Dorado counties — was draped over much of the Bay Area. By Claire Hao
- Firefighters made progress against the Mosquito Fire in the Sierra foothills, aided by lower temperatures and increased humidity, though the pall of smoke pushed air quality to hazardous levels north. By Anna Buchmann and Jessica Flores
- Doctors and health officials say more children in the state are growing up with wildfire, which can cause stress, depression, anxiety and other lasting trauma. Experts say there are ways to help kids stay calm. By Heidi de Marco
- With an encouraging change in weather, firefighters battling the Mosquito Fire dug in to protect tiny town of Volcanoville. By Sarah Ravani and Matthias Gafni
- The fire insurance bill Jonathan Richards paid monthly kept the threat of wildfire front and center. Still, wildfire wasn’t something he liked to imagine becoming a reality. Then the Mosquito Fire came. By Jordan Parker
- The wildfire barreled across dry landscapes amid continued heat, growing to 30,000 acres, destroying homes, forcing chaotic evacuations and sending smoke billowing across a large region. By Sarah Ravani and Jill Tucker
- The heat wave is closing out, and newsroom meteorologist Gerry Díaz explains why the remnants of a hurricane off the coast of Baja will bring an unusual mix of storms and air quality concerns to Northern California this weekend. By Gerry Díaz
- Family of five who lost their home in Weed filed a lawsuit Thursday in Sacramento County Superior Court alleging negligence and public nuisance by mill owner Roseburg Forest Products. By Matthias Gafni
- The Mosquito Fire continues to grow as hot, dry conditions affect the Sierra Nevada blaze By Joel Umanzor
- Electricity customers were asked by the grid operator to begin conserving power at 3 p.m., one hour ahead of typical requests in the last week. Here’s how ongoing wildfires may play a factor. By Claire Hao
- Active fires are burning across Northern California, including the Mosquito Fire in Placer County, Radford Fire and Fairview Fire near Hemet. By Dominic Fracassa, Jessica Flores, Gerry Diaz, Aidin Vaziri, Claire Hao
- The fire, which prompted evacuations, burned at least one property and officials said they would check reports that multiple structures had burned. By Gerry Díaz and Jordan Parker
- Roseburg Forest Products announced Wednesday it is investigating a possible failure of water-spraying equipment in its cogeneration plant that may have sparked the Mill Fire. It says it is establishing a $50 million for a community restoration fund. By Matthias Gafni
- California’s heat wave has brought days of triple-digit temperatures, priming vegetation to carry wildfire. Now, a hurricane could bring even more risk. By Hannah Hagemann and Jack Lee
- Firefighters quickly tackled a fire with a “dangerous rate of spread” in northwest Contra Costa County Monday evening. By Mallory Moench
- The Siskiyou County sheriff told residents that two people had died in the fast-moving Mill Fire that ripped through Weed. By Dustin Gardiner
- Cal Fire is searching for clues as to what sparked a fast-moving blaze that torched dozens of homes in Weed. No cause has been determined. By Matthias Gafni
- Forecasters fear demand for power could exceed 49,000 megawatts, the heaviest on record since Sept. 2017. By Rachel Swan
- Firefighters in Siskiyou County are battling two fast growing fires, prompting several evacuation orders in the area and already injuring several. Together, the fires had burned through more than 7,000 acres by Saturday morning in the same county... By Danielle Echeverria
- Multiple wildfires, triple-digit temperatures, and heavy demand for electricity has raised the possibility of outages, prompting regulators to call for energy conservation. By Rachel Swan and Lauren Hepler
- Officials said the 2,500-acre Mill Fire was already destroying homes in Northern California within hours of sparking Friday afternoon. By Lauren Hepler
- Forty East Bay regional parks will be closed Sunday and Labor Day as the temperatures are expected to soar as high as 100. The parks are being shut down due to an elevated risk of wildfires. By Michael Cabanatuan
- By early Friday morning, Cal Fire said the Woods Fire’s forward progress had been halted. The 21-acre blaze was burning near the Mother Lode towns of Sonora and Jamestown. By Lauren Hepler
- The weekend heat wave is expected to bring dangerously hot weather, increase wildfire risk and threaten to overwhelm the state’s power grid, authorities said. By Michael Cabanatuan and Claire Hao
- The yearlong fight in Sonoma County for farmworker protections during wildfire season has been settled, but not everyone is happy with the outcome. By Jess Lander
- A stretch of the state’s main interior artery in North Los Angeles County will be closed for an “unknown” period of time due to the 165-acre-and-counting Route Fire, CalTrans said. By Lauren Hepler
- A northern Nevada wildfire burning just under 100 miles from Black Rock Desert, where Burning Man is starting this weekend, exploded Friday afternoon, growing to more than 15,000 acres by Saturday morning, according to Nevada fire officials. By Danielle Echeverria
- San Jose firefighters stopped forward progress on a dramatic fire along Interstate 680 near Berryessa Road Wednesday afternoon. According to the San Jose Fire Department, a structure fire in a condominium complex sparked a vegetation fire that... By Michael Cabanatuan
- PG&E CEO Patti Poppe says the utility, after years of igniting devastating wildfires, has made huge safety strides to reduce fire risk. By Julie Johnson
- Firefighters expect to fully contain the blaze by nightfall. By Rachel Swan
- As of Sunday afternoon the blazed had charred 48 acres and was 55 % contained. By Rachel Swan
- The blaze, called the Point Fire, ignited in Lower Lake and is 20% contained. Firefighters stopped forward progress of the wildfire Saturday night. By Emma Talley
- The fire broke out around 2:30 p.m. Saturday between Owl Creek Road and Lost Ranch Way, CalFire said. The fire is 0% contained and several structures are threatened, but officials could not confirm how many are at risk. By Emma Talley
- Officials, using DNA and dental analysis, have identified the four people killed last month in this year’s largest wildfire. The four were all residents of Klamath River in their 70s or 80s. By Danielle Echeverria
- All areas across the U.S. are expected to experience hotter temperatures over the next three decades — and the West Coast is expected to see longer heat waves, according to a new report from the First Street Foundation, a climate-focused research... By Danielle Echeverria
- The utility company, PacificCorp, has not reported any problems with its equipment to state regulators. By Julie Johnson
- While thunderstorms actually ignite a small number of wildfires in California, these blazes have been some of the most destructive By Jack Lee
- Starting Tuesday, two weather systems will churn out some of the smoggiest and hottest air of the year so far for the Bay Area. By Gerry Díaz
- A grass fire near Interstate 580 in the Castro Valley hills was threatening structures Monday as temperatures rose and winds picked up. A smaller fire in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights Park was quickly extinguished Monday afternoon. By Michael Cabanatuan
- A noxious combination of blisteringly hot weather and smoke drifting from the Six Rivers Lightning Complex Fire prompted Bay Area air quality officials to issue a Spare the Air alert for Tuesday. By Dominic Fracassa
- It’s that special time of year in Wine Country: harvest. But ask any two winemakers how it’s going, and you may get two vastly different answers. By Esther Mobley
- The fire broke out around 2:30 p.m. Saturday between Owl Creek Road and Lost Ranch Way, CalFire said. The fire is 0% contained and several structures are threatened, but officials could not confirm how many are at risk. By Emma Talley
- Officials, using DNA and dental analysis, have identified the four people killed last month in this year’s largest wildfire. The four were all residents of Klamath River in their 70s or 80s. By Danielle Echeverria
- All areas across the U.S. are expected to experience hotter temperatures over the next three decades — and the West Coast is expected to see longer heat waves, according to a new report from the First Street Foundation, a climate-focused research... By Danielle Echeverria
- The utility company, PacificCorp, has not reported any problems with its equipment to state regulators. By Julie Johnson
- While thunderstorms actually ignite a small number of wildfires in California, these blazes have been some of the most destructive By Jack Lee
- Starting Tuesday, two weather systems will churn out some of the smoggiest and hottest air of the year so far for the Bay Area. By Gerry Díaz
- A grass fire near Interstate 580 in the Castro Valley hills was threatening structures Monday as temperatures rose and winds picked up. A smaller fire in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights Park was quickly extinguished Monday afternoon. By Michael Cabanatuan
- A noxious combination of blisteringly hot weather and smoke drifting from the Six Rivers Lightning Complex Fire prompted Bay Area air quality officials to issue a Spare the Air alert for Tuesday. By Dominic Fracassa
- The fire caused by lightning strikes picked up momentum over the weekend. By Kellie Hwang
- The McKinney Fire, the roughly 94-square-mile wildfire burning in Klamath National Forest in Northern California, killed a longtime U.S. Forest Service lookout the first night of the fire, according to the U.S. Forest Service. By Michael Cabanatuan and Dominic Fracassa
- The Six Rivers Lightning Complex began as a dozen lightning-caused blazes on Friday and continued to burn out of control over the weekend. By Kellie Hwang
- The wildfire, burning in Siskiyou County, torched 58,668 acres by Thursday morning, making it California’s largest fire of the year so far. By Jordan Parker and Julie Johnson
-
‘It scares the heck out of me’: California’s federal firefighter shortage has gotten dramatically...The U.S. Forest Service had hoped to replenish its firefighting ranks after staffing fell over the past few years. Instead, the agency lost even more employees. By Kurtis Alexander
- Cloudy, cooler weather, and 3 inches of rainfall helped prevent the McKinney Fire in rural Siskiyou County from growing but the weather is expected to get hotter and drier. Four people have been killed in the fire west of Highway 5 and Yreka. By Michael Cabanatuan
- The Washburn Fire had threatened the 500 giant sequoia trees at the southern end of the national park. But they survived, and now the fire is nearly fully contained. By Kurtis Alexander
- A cluster of wildfires burning west of the massive McKinney Fire have merged to form what fire officials have dubbed the Yeti Complex. By Jordan Parker
- Two more people were found dead from the McKinney Fire burning in the Klamath National Forest, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday. By Jordan Parker
- Two people were found dead in their vehicle over the weekend, parked in the path of the raging wildfire burning in Klamath National Forest, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said Monday morning. By Jordan Parker
- For backcountry hikers, August used to be a magical month, coming after the mosquitoes and before early autumn storms. Now, the risk of fires and smoke has cast a pall. By Kate Galbraith