Quincy, CA – 14 August 2021
1. Evacuee Johnnie Brookwood in church shelter parking lot, sign reading (English) "American Red Cross"
2. Tent lived in by another evacuee
3. Various of Brookwood combing her hair
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Johnnie Brookwood, evacuee:
"I've lost track of time. I've been here I think about two weeks. And how I got here was, I was living in the city of Greenville which no longer exists for the most part."
Greenville, CA – 5 August 2021
5. Fire engulfs a home
Greenville, CA – 12 August 2021
6. Wide of burned-down Greenville library
7. Drive-by of fire-leveled street
Quincy, CA – 14 August 2021
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Johnnie Brookwood, evacuee:
"Well at first it didn't affect us at all. It was off someplace, someplace called Dixie. I didn't know what Dixie even meant. I still don't know what it means."
Greenville, CA – 12 August 2021
9. Wide of burned-down Greenville post office
Quincy, CA – 14 August 2021
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Johnnie Brookwood, evacuee:
"Then it's 'Oh no we have to go too?' Surely Greenville won't burn. But then it did and now all we can see are ashes. I can't go there yet."
Outside Canyondam, CA – 13 August 2021
9. Worker blocks road impacted by the Dixie Fire
Greenville, CA – 12 August 2021
10. Fire-ravaged building
11. Sign reading (English) "Beware of the dog" in fire-ravaged area
Quincy, CA – 14 August 2021
12. Wide of trailer tent where evacuee from Greenville James Reichle sleeps in church parking lot
13. SOUNDBITE (English) James Reichle, evacuee:
"These are all people who either don't have a home or don't have access to a home. I still have a house standing, no damage. But I can't get into it."
14. Reichle enters trailer UPSOUND (English) "I mean I got beds and heat. That's his (pet dog) area on the left and I'm over here on this end basically just beds that turn into tables."
15. SOUNDBITE (English) James Reichle, evacuee:
"So this was the designated refugee area."
16. Reichle holds the leash of his dog, UPSOUND (English) "He was a refugee. He's a rescue from the streets of Susanville.So, he's used to being a refugee."
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Johnnie Brookwood, evacuee:
"Now it's unbelievable. What's taking place all around me is unbelievable."
Outside Taylorsville, CA – 13 August 2021
18. Structure burns in Dixie Fire
Quincy, CA – 14 August 2021
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Johnnie Brookwood, evacuee: ++STARTS ON BROOKWOOD'S HANDS AND CONTAINS ANGLE CHANGE TO WIDE++
"Nothing can fill in my disbelief. I mean it's real. I know it's real. There's no question about that. I don't even have a doubt about that. But it's still unimaginable. And its duration and its impact on these people - all of us - including me is unbelievable. It's just 'how can this be?'"
20. Brookwood greets another person at the shelter
21. Sign in downtown Quincy reading (English) "We are with you Greenville"
Johnnie Brookwood had never heard of a road named Dixie when a wildfire began a month ago in the forestlands of Northern California.
Within three weeks, it exploded into the largest wildfire burning in the U.S., destroying more than 1,000 homes and businesses including a lodge in the gold rush-era town of Greenville where she was renting a room for $650 per month.
"Well at first it didn't affect us at all. It was off someplace - someplace called Dixie. I didn't know what Dixie even meant," Brookwood, 76, said Saturday.
"Then it was 'Oh no we have to go too?' Surely Greenville won't burn, but then it did and now all we can see are ashes."
Across the church parking lot where Brookwood was staying, James Reichle took refuge in a trailer tent with his dog after evacuating from Greenville.
"These are all people who either don't have a home or don't have access to a home," said Reichle.
"I still have a house standing, no damage. But I can't get into it."
His home was unliveable without power and utilities after having escaped the Dixie Fire's relentless flames.
"So this was the designated refugee area," said Reichle.
Firefighters faced "another critical day" as thunderstorms pushed flames closer to two towns not far from where the Dixie Fire destroyed much of Greenville last week.
The thunderstorms, which began Friday, didn't produce much rain but whipped up wind and created lightning strikes, forcing crews to focus on using bulldozers to build lines and keep the blaze from reaching Westwood, a town of about 1,700 people.
Westwood was placed under evacuation orders August 5.
Wind gusts of up to 50 mph (80 kph) also pushed the fire closer to Janesville, a town of about 1,500 people, east of Greenville, said Jake Cagle, the operations chief at the east zone of the fire.
The fire was among more than 100 large wildfires burning in more than a dozen states in the West seared by drought and hot, bone-dry weather that turned forests, brushlands, meadows and pastures into tinder.
The U.S. Forest Service said Friday it's operating in crisis mode, fully deploying firefighters and maxing out its support system.
The roughly 21,000 federal firefighters working on the ground is more than double the number of firefighters sent to contain forest fires at this time a year ago, said Anthony Scardina, a deputy forester for the agency's Pacific Southwest region.
More than 6,000 firefighters alone were battling the Dixie Fire, which has ravaged nearly 845 square miles (2,100 square kilometers) — an area the size of Tokyo — and was 31% contained.
"Its duration and its impact on these people - all of us - including me is unbelievable. It's just 'how can this be?'" Brookwood said while staying in her third evacuation center.
The cause of the fire has not been determined.
Pacific Gas and Electric has said the fire may have been started when a tree fell on its power line.
There also was a danger of new fires erupting because of unstable weather conditions, including extreme heat across the northern half of the West and a chance of thunderstorms that could bring lightning to Northern California, Oregon and Nevada, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
In southeastern Montana, firefighters and residents were scrambling to save hundreds of homes as flames advanced across the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.
The blaze was more than 50% contained. But its southern edge was still burning near the tribal headquarters town of Lame Deer, where a mandatory evacuation remained in place, and a second fire was threatening from the opposite direction.
Smoke also drove air pollution levels to unhealthy or very unhealthy levels in parts of Northern California, Oregon and Idaho, according to the U.S. Air Quality Index.
Hot, dry weather with strong afternoon winds also propelled several fires in Washington state, and similar weather was expected into the weekend, fire officials said.
In southeastern Oregon, two new wildfires started by lightning Thursday near the California border spread rapidly through juniper trees, sagebrush and evergreen trees.
The Patton Meadow Fire about 14 miles (23 kilometers) west of Lakeview, near the California border, exploded to 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) in less than 24 hours in a landscape sucked dry by extreme drought.
It was 10% contained.
Triple-digit temperatures and bone-dry conditions in Oregon could increase fire risks through the weekend.
Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.
Dozens of fires also are burning in western Canada and in Europe, including Greece, where a massive wildfire has decimated forests and torched homes.
