‘The town is completely gone.’ Dixie Fire devastates California Gold Rush town of Greenville

Fence posts were smoldering and flames were leaping from gas lines. A hotel collapsed as fire trucks cruised past. All that was left of a church was a melted plastic sign advertising an upcoming Bible study session.

Much of the tiny Plumas County community of Greenville was in ruins Thursday, reduced to ashes by the Dixie Fire.

Cal Fire said the three-week-old fire grew to 322,502 acres overnight, driven by fierce winds, and leveled parts of Greenville, a Gold Rush-era community of about 1,000. “Reports indicate that Greenville is 75 percent destroyed,” federal fire officials said in an incident briefing.

“The town is completely gone. The town has been devastated and leveled,” said Eva Gorman, owner of a shop called Josefina Fine Knits. “There’s nothing left, almost nothing left of the town.” Her own business vanished, and most of the town’s historic buildings disappeared, too.

By Thursday evening, the fire grew to 361,812 acres, meaning the fire expanded by about 25% in 24 hours.

“My heart is crushed,” said Plumas County Sheriff Todd Johns, a lifelong Greenville resident. He said there were no reports of injuries, but four people were still unaccounted for.

The downtown was a wreck Thursday. The Sierra Lodge collapsed as fire trucks rolled past, their tires crunching the broken glass that had blown out the night before. The post office was gone, with a ruined postal truck half melted behind the building. Also destroyed was the First Lutheran Church of Greenville.

PG&E crews cleared down power lines along Main Street as strong gusts of wind shook the blackened trees. A doe sauntered through Main Street, seemingly oblivious to the destruction.

“We lost Greenville tonight,” an emotional Rep. Doug LaMalfa, whose congressional district includes Plumas County, said on Facebook late Wednesday. “My heart is aching.”

Greenville is a town steeped in history. The Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce promotes a walking tour that features nearly two-dozen structures from the 19th and early 20th centuries, including an old saloon, harness shop and more.

“McIntyre & Co.’s General Store was in this site in the mid 1870s,” reads one sign covered in ash Thursday. “The building burned in 1851 but was immediately replaced with the brick building that is standing today.”

After the Dixie Fire roared through town, only part of an exterior wall of the general store was standing.

Cal Fire spokesman Rick Carhart said “there were a number of homes and buildings destroyed,” but a full assessment of the damages wasn’t immediately available.

Kevin Goss, owner of Village Drug Co. in downtown Greenville and a Plumas County supervisor, said “the whole historic downtown area is destroyed.” That includes his drug store, which dated to 1860 and was the oldest building in town.

“It came through like a blowtorch,” he said. “Most of the town is flattened. I think we lost both gas stations. The Dollar General is still standing — I can’t believe it.”

Bink Huddleston, whose Hideaway Motel and Lodge was destroyed, was walking through downtown Wednesday when the fire approached.

“That wind took it,” Huddleston said. “The flames were coming down the road; it was a goddamn monster.” The hotel was built by a relative 80 years ago, he said.

Carhart said he wasn’t aware of any reports of fatalities in Greenville. The Dixie Fire is the largest fire in California this year and the sixth-largest by acreage in state history. It grew by about 15% overnight and remained 35% contained for the third day.

Anxiety at Quincy evacuation site

In nearby Quincy, an ominous plume of gray smoke hovered over the northern horizon. Helicopters, their rotors spinning, prepared to take off at the Quincy airstrip and the fairgrounds were converted into a large camp for firefighters and their trucks and bulldozers.

At the Red Cross shelter at Springs of Hope Christian Fellowship, evacuee Jack Romero took his heeler mix, Rascal, out for a walk. He was one of a couple dozen people staying at the church, some in campers outside. Romero, 36, wasn’t in Greenville when his community caught fire Wednesday, but he watched on social media as images trickled in showing homes and businesses engulfed in flames.

He’s heartbroken and has no idea what to do next or where to go next. “I’d meant to put down roots and stay there for a while,” he said of Greenville, where he’d lived for nearly three years. “Now, I don’t even have a tent,” he said. “I have nothing.”

Jerry Thrall, a Greenville resident who was at the Quincy evacuation shelter, said he was still waiting to hear whether his home had burned.

“People there said it was just like a huge tornado went through the town,” said Thrall, who’s lived in Greenville for 27 years. “It burnt that town down in about 25 minutes.”

The fire also was bearing down on the small town of Chester, on the northwest side of Lake Almanor. Mike Wink, a Cal Fire battalion chief, said firefighters were able to extinguish a spot fire at the town’s mill Wednesday, but the community was still in danger.

“It’s not over in Chester,” he said. “It’s very hazardous, it’s red flag. ... It’s going to be a fire fight today again in Chester.”

Meanwhile, about 10 miles southeast of Greenville, residents of Taylorsville were preparing Thursday afternoon for the possibility of the Dixie Fire hitting their community. Ty Cherry and his friend Colt Beres, were hosing down wooden shingles and sidings on a cluster of old buildings, including the Taylorsville Tavern.

“We’re tired of sitting around doing nothing while every single town around here keeps burning,” said Cherry, 22, whose family lost its home in Greenville.

Locals gathered on the porch outside the Taylorsville market and post office to discuss whether to evacuate. “I’m not going to leave the town until you can read a newspaper by the light of the fire,” said Monroe White. “Because once you leave, you can’t copme back. And I need to know what’s happening.”

But he acknowledged the dangers involved. “With the wind, you just don’t know,” he said. “We haven’t slept very well these last few nights.”

And Kelly Tan, the owner of Young’s Market, wasn’t taking any chances. “After Greenville, there’s just so much sadness,” said Tan, who was preparing to lock up and leave. “So when they say to evacuate, I’m evacuating.”

Officials said the fire moved quickly into Greenville, which was leveled by fire in 1881. The area lies about 80 miles northeast of Paradise, where the Camp Fire killed 85 people in 2018 in the deadliest wildfire in California’s history.

Earlier in the day, it didn’t appear that Greenville was threatened. “Everything looked good,” said Jake Cagle, operations section chief at the multi-agency command. But then “it slopped over,” he said. “It got into Greenville.”

Dixie Fire map

Source: National Interagency Fire Center

The Plumas County sheriff’s office posted an evacuation order on Facebook, saying: “You are in imminent danger and you MUST leave now!!”

Some Greenville residents stayed behind

But when the fire rushed into Greenville, many residents apparently didn’t heed or receive evacuation orders, hindering firefighters’ efforts.

Cagle said in a video posted on Facebook Thursday that the fire crews had to rescue some Greenville residents who hadn’t evacuated on their own, and “that takes us away from fighting the fire.”

He said conditions remained poor Thursday, and areas around Williams Valley and Pecks Valley north of Greenville could be in danger.

Cal Fire said about 20,000 people have been evacuated in four counties, Plumas, Butte, Lassen and Tehama.

As firefighters continued to battle the fire, Lassen Volcanic National Park announced it was shutting down temporarily.

“The Dixie Fire is currently is active on the east side of the park,” officials said on Facebook. “The entire park is closed to all uses to allow for firefighter access.”

Carhart said the Lassen County community of Westwood, northeast of Lake Almanor, could be threatened, although the danger didn’t appear to be imminent. On Wednesday, fire inched closer to the lake and threatened the community of Almanor West, but firefighters were able to keep the community safe, he said.

Carhart said ever-changing winds were making conditions difficult for firefighters throughout the Dixie burn zone. Winds were expected to blow from the south, then shift from west to east in the afternoon, and then in a more from the north Thursday night. “It’s pretty dynamic,” he said.

While the cause of the Dixie Fire remains under investigation, PG&E Corp. has told state regulators that its equipment may have been responsible. The utility was driven into bankruptcy in early 2019 by a series of major fires, including the Camp Fire, but exited Chapter 11 last summer.

Dixie Fire detail on Greenville

Source: National Interagency Fire Center