Toll of California's Wildfires: Homes and Crops

OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) -- Buddhist monks have finally been forced out of their retreat center by one of the big fires burning between Big Sur and Carmel Valley. They had been the final hold-outs in the area, but the monks fled last night as the fire closed in.

The fire in the Big Sur area has been burning for three weeks, and while it is slowly coming under containment, it has now moved close enough to the Zen Mountain Center to force evacuations.

Click here for more information on the Zen Mountain Center

The Basin Complex Fire is 27 percent contained, and has burned 85,717 acres. The nearby Indians Fire in the Ventana Wilderness is expected to be contained sometime Thursday.

KCBS' Tim Ryan reports

Officials say at least 1 million dollars worth of avocados have been lost to the Gap wildfire in Santa Barbara County.

County Agricultural Commissioner William Gillette says at least 233 acres of orchards have burned.
Gillette estimates the cost to replace trees, farm equipment, and irrigation lines, plus lost production until new trees bear fruit, will be 9.5 million dollars over the next five to seven years.

The commissioner delivered a preliminary report to the governor's Office of Emergency Services today. He says it's the first step in helping local farmers get financial relief for crop losses.

Fire Spokesmen Talk to KCBS

Meanwhile in Butte County, for Clay and Nancy Henphill, running from raging wildfires has become a familiar routine.

For the second time in just over two weeks, they were forced to evacuate their home after fire officials ordered 10,000 people in the Sierra Nevada foothills to flee ahead of a wind-whipped blaze, one of about 40 lightning-sparked wildfires that have charred 49,000 acres in Butte County over the past two weeks.

The Henphills awoke to blaring sirens around 1 a.m. Tuesday and were told to leave immediately. Only a week earlier, they had returned to their home in Concow, a rural community about 90 miles north of Sacramento, after spending a week at a shelter.

"They were running sirens all down through there. We started tossing a few things in the car. A fireman said, 'Get out of here quick,"' Clay Henphill, 59, said Wednesday. "We all came out in a long lines of cars, with fire trucks going in as we were going out."

The couple grabbed clothes, medicine, camping gear and the family dog and jumped in their car. They spent Tuesday night in a tent outside an emergency shelter in Oroville.

"You almost feel like somebody is out to get you," said Nancy Henphill, 61.

By Wednesday, the lightning-sparked wildfire had ripped through 10 more homes, bringing the total number destroyed to 50 homes, mostly in Concow. Flames threatened nearly 4,000 other houses in the nearby city of Paradise and other neighboring communities. A separate wildfire destroyed 74 homes in Paradise last month.

The latest blaze flared up early Tuesday after erratic winds blew embers across fire-containment lines. The fire was burning across the Feather River from Paradise, where thousands of homes are at risk if the winds shift and the blaze jumps the river.

Authorities on Wednesday closed Highway 70 north of Lake Oroville and issued evacuations for the communities of Big Bend, Jarbo Gap and Yankee Hill. Four emergency shelters were set up in Chico and Oroville.
Firefighters faced a sudden drop in humidity and triple-digit temperatures amid a heat wave that was expected to last until the weekend. At least six firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion Wednesday, said state fire spokesman Mike Mohler.

Dozens of evacuees spent Tuesday night at the emergency shelter at Las Plumas High School in Oroville, where people slept on cots in the gymnasium and ate meals donated by businesses and churches.