Growing wildfire menaces rural, northern California; authorities order evacuation of 2,500 residents

A raging wildfire on Sunday threatened to cut off access to a rural community in northern California where authorities have ordered the evacuations of some 2,500 residents.

Erratic winds and high temperatures were fueling the Pawnee Fire in the Spring Valley region about 100 miles northwest of Sacramento. The blaze imperiled the single road leading into a mostly residential community with some farms, officials said.

"Fire has jumped the road in a couple of places," Dale Carnathan, emergency services manager for the Lake County Sheriff's Office said by phone, warning that the danger for local residents was "absolutely imminent."

The fire had scorched 3,000 acres and threatened 600 buildings, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. More than 230 firefighters are responding.

Carnathan said some local residents were refusing to evacuate, while others departed after the orders were issued a day earlier. A shelter opened in a nearby high school had received only 10 people on Saturday night, Carnathan said.

T he Pawnee fire is one of several wildfires burning in California this weekend, and much of northern state remained under high alert on Sunday for conditions that can foster fires.