Mourning the dead in California’s wildfires
By Frank Shyong, Hailey Branson-Potts and Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times
As firefighters continued to make progress on two deadly wildfires in Northern California, there was mourning for those who could not outrun the flames and were killed.
Citing the five deaths in the Lake and Butte fires, officials urged people to heed evacuation orders.
Capt. Buck Condit, a spokesman for CalFire, said there’s little firefighters can do to help people who don’t leave.
Two of those killed in the Butte fire — 82-year-old Owen Goldsmith and 66-year-old Mark McCloud of Mountain Ranch — “were in the evacuation areas and did not heed those warnings,” CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant said.
The other three known deaths resulted from the Valley Fire.