West Zone wildfire burn victim dies, pushing death toll in California blaze to 16
California’s deadliest wildfire of the year has claimed its 16th victim, weeks after raging through communities near Lake Oroville.
A 54-year-old Berry Creek man died Oct. 21 at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where he was treated for burns suffered from the West Zone of the North Complex, formerly known as the Bear Fire.
Win Naing, injured in the fire Sept. 8, was able to drive himself a short distance from his home to locate a firefighter, who helped transport him to a local hospital, sheriff’s officials said Wednesday in a news release.
Naing was transferred the next day to UC Davis Medical Center for treatment. He died six weeks later, after he was placed in a medically induced coma, the Sheriff’s Office said.
With its death toll at 16, all from the West Zone, the North Complex stands alone as the fifth-deadliest wildfire in California history, according to Cal Fire records. Three of the five historical worst — the North Complex, the North Bay area’s Tubbs Fire and the November 2018 Camp Fire — have come since October 2017.
The North Complex ignited Aug. 18 at Plumas National Forest due to lightning strikes from a freakishly powerful thunderstorm that rolled across Northern California. The complex has burned close to 319,000 acres and destroyed about 2,350 structures, making it the sixth-largest and fifth-most destructive wildfire in California’s recorded history, according to Cal Fire records.
The southwest corner of the complex, then known as the Bear Fire, had minimal activity for close to three weeks.
But with intense winds gusting up to about 50 mph, the Bear Fire roared to life the morning of Sept. 8, jumped the Middle Fork of the Feather River, raced toward Butte County and prompted urgent evacuations near Lake Oroville.
The blaze, renamed by fire authorities from the Bear Fire to the West Zone of the North Complex, effectively destroyed the town of Berry Creek, having killed 14 residents in the town of about 1,200. The fire also killed two in Feather Falls, a few miles to the east.
Fire personnel are still working toward full containment of the North Complex, reported by the U.S. Forest Service at 96% containment as of Tuesday. Its West Zone is listed at 98% containment, with no growth in size observed since late September.
Naing’s death brings California’s wildfire death toll in 2020 to 32, with half of them from the West Zone, according to Cal Fire. The record-setting, still-ongoing wildfire season has consumed over 4.1 million acres (nearly 6,500 square miles) and destroyed more than 10,000 buildings. Cal Fire has reported nearly 9,000 major and minor fire incidents this year.
Climate change and California wildfires
Wildfires have always been part of life in California. The past four years have brought some of the most destructive and deadliest wildfires in the state’s modern history.
Nearly 180 people have lost their lives since 2017. More than 41,000 structures have been destroyed and nearly 7 million acres have burned. That’s roughly the size of Massachusetts.
The 2017 wildfire season occurred during the second-hottest year on record in California and included a devastating string of fires in October that killed 44 people and destroyed nearly 9,000 buildings in Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino, Butte and Solano counties.
The following year was the most destructive and deadliest for wildfires in the state’s history. It included the Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people, and the enormous Mendocino Complex.
This year, at least 32 people have died and a record-shattering 4.1 million acres have burned, according to Cal Fire.
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