California Fire Continues As Neighborhoods Reopen

About 1,000 people in the rural Northern California community of Weed were still being kept from their homes Sunday as firefighters worked to contain a blaze that had sparked out of control at the start of the holiday weekend.

Power outages, smoky skies and uncertainty about what the day would bring left a feeling of emptiness around the town the morning after evacuation orders were lifted for thousands of other residents.

“It’s eerily quiet,” said Susan Tavalero, a Weed city councilor, who was driving to a meeting with fire officials.

She was joined by Mayor Kim Greene, and the two hoped to get more details on how many homes had been lost.

A total of 132 structures were destroyed or damaged, fire officials said Sunday, though it wasn’t clear whether they were homes, businesses, or other buildings.

Crews kept the flames, known as the Mill Fire, from growing overnight.

As of Sunday morning, the fire covered about 6.6 square miles (17 square kilometers) and was 25% contained, numbers unchanged since Saturday night, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s morning report.