The Valley Fire in Lake County, California grew at an astonishingly fast rate on Saturday and Sunday, reaching 50,000 acres in under 24 hours. Creating its own highly variable weather conditions, the fire looked like a wall of flames and dark, angry smoke as it overtook the community of Middletown. It also affected the towns of Cobb, Lake and Amador.
This video, shot by someone escaping Anderson Springs on Saturday evening, was posted to youtube on Sunday. It shows the harrowing drive through the fire in order to reach safety from Amador Springs.
“It was very scary driving out, I burned myself on the driver’s side window! Just happy everyone is safe…,” wrote the Youtube user, MulletFive, who posted the video.
A subsequent video, posted by the same user, shows what Middletown looked like as the fire burned through neighborhoods where homes had stood hours earlier.
The swiftly-moving fires overwhelmed firefighters and destroyed hundreds of homes and many more structures. The true scale of the devastation is not yet known, since the fire was still out of control as of Monday morning eastern time.
California is in the midst of its worst drought in recorded history, which has turned the state into a tinderbox, with vegetation primed for fire. This wildfire in particular exhibited behavior that veteran firefighters have never seen before, according to news reports.
