The 38,000-acre Borel Fire in Kern County razed the historic mining town of Havilah.
“We lost everything, everything was gone,” Sean Rains, a Havilah resident, told the Times on Sunday. “The whole town burned. A lot of people, friends that I know, everybody lost everything.”
The fire broke out Wednesday in the Kern River Canyon and spread quickly due to high winds, authorities said. It swept through Havilah Friday night and leveled most of the town, apparently sparing only a few buildings.
A museum in Havilah has been reduced to rubble, except for a plaque that reads “Historic Havilah: First Seat of Kern County.”
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Standing amid an acrid mix of smoke and ash, Rains said he and several other residents helped firefighters keep Havilah City Hall from burning. But a nearby historical museum was reduced to rubble, except for a plaque that reads, “Historic Havilah: First County Seat of Kern County.”
The unincorporated community of about 250 people is in the mountains northeast of Bakersfield.
“Our hearts go out to the people of Havilah and the Piute Meadows area,” Kern County Fire Department Deputy Chief Dionisio Mitchell said at a news conference Saturday. “We know they suffered a loss yesterday. It’s difficult for them. We have crews on scene right now assessing the situation.”
More than 1,200 firefighters battled high temperatures and extremely dry conditions Sunday as they continued to fight the blaze, which remains out of control.
Authorities could not immediately confirm the number of structures burned and said assessments were ongoing. Thousands of people in the area remain under evacuation orders as the fire threatens populated areas such as Bodfish and Lake Isabella.
“We’ve been put on red alert and the fire continues to burn very, very intensely and erratically,” said Capt. Andrew Freeborn of the Kern County Fire Department. “The flames are visible for miles around. If you’re looking to define extreme fire behavior, we’re seeing it on this fire.”
Authorities could not immediately confirm the number of structures burned and said assessments were ongoing.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Havilah was founded in the 1860s and is a California State Historic Site. At the time of its founding, it was a busy mining center with saloons, dance halls, hotels, stores and other establishments, according to the Havilah Museum. The city served as the county seat of Kern County from 1866 until 1872, when the government was moved to Bakersfield.
But Havilah is also no stranger to fires, and many residents began leaving the town after several fires ravaged the city in the early 1870s, according to the museum.
However, the area where the Borel fire is burning has not seen much wildfire activity since the early 1990s, meaning there is plenty of unburned vegetation that can serve as fuel for the flames, officials said.
“And when you align the bottom [relative humidity]“High winds and triple-digit temperatures that we’ve been dealing with for the last 10 to 12 days, it’s all been a perfect storm out there,” Mitchell said at Saturday’s news conference.
Incident Commander Jim Snow added that crews are facing “steep, unforgiving terrain” and hot, sunny slopes.
“The weatherman says it’s 100 degrees out, but with the heat from the fire, the heat from the slope reflecting off of it and the heat from the general air temperature, you can expect temperatures up to 120, 130 degrees at any given time for the firefighters out there,” he said.
Havilah is an unincorporated community of about 250 people in the mountains northeast of Bakersfield.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
On Sunday, Havilah resident Brett Keith returned to find his home destroyed. He dug through the rubble, but the only thing he could find was a small shotgun he had had since he was 7 years old. A large bull belonging to his neighbor stood in front of his house, suffering from some burns.
“I’ll have to call my neighbor to come get his bull,” he said.
The Borel Fire is being managed along with two other fires in Kern and Tulare counties, collectively referred to as the SQF Lightning Incident. The other fires are the Trout Fire, which has burned 22,660 acres and is 25% contained, and the Long Fire, which has burned 9,204 acres and is 35% contained.
They are among about 20 active wildfires burning in California, including the 350,000-acre Park Fire burning in Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties.
Mitchell said: “It’s going to be a fight that will last for a while.”
“The state of California is under fire from all sides right now,” he said.
