McKinney Fire updates: Two more bodies found, bringing death toll to 4 people
Two more people have been killed in the McKinney Fire burning in Northern California, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday, bringing the wildfire’s death toll to four.
Search teams found the two victims Monday at separate homes along Highway 96, inside the fire perimeter, the Sheriff’s Office said in a 10 a.m. news release.
The victims’ identities will not be released pending notification of family.
Two others were found dead Sunday morning in a burned-out vehicle in a residential driveway, near the community of Klamath River off Highway 96, the Sheriff’s Office said. They have also not yet been formally identified.
“At this time there are no unaccounted for persons,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote Tuesday morning.
Residents who believe someone living near the fire zone is unaccounted for should call the county’s emergency operations center at 530-842-8741, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The McKinney Fire grew minimally Monday and overnight, amid cooler and more humid weather conditions, but the threat of dry lightning and strong gusts from thunderstorms was forecast to continue Tuesday as crews battle the blaze.
Containment remains officially reported at 0%, and the wildfire is California’s largest of the year, recorded in midday morning incident update from the U.S. Forest Service at 56,165 acres, or about 88 square miles.
The McKinney Fire ignited Friday afternoon at Klamath National Forest. It grew explosively over the weekend due to gusty winds from thunderstorms.
The fire is burning a few miles west of Yreka. It has forced mandatory evacuations for about 2,000 residents in rural Siskiyou County , which is along the California-Oregon border.
Some 50 bulldozers have been used to complete a dozer line protecting Yreka, a city of about 7,500, authorities said Monday evening.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for dire fire weather conditions Monday, due to the possibility of scattered thunderstorms bringing dry lightning or severe wind gusts in central Siskiyou County. No major flareups were reported on the McKinney Fire, nor any significant new fire starts, though a handful of smaller fires were started by lightning, according to Cal Fire’s Siskiyou Unit.
A group of the smaller fires on Tuesday was renamed the Yeti Complex, totaling 2,430 acres with 0% containment, according to the Forest Service.
“Higher relative humidity and cooler temperatures moderated the fire behavior today,” Forest Service officials wrote in a Monday evening incident report.
But the red flag warning has been extended through 11 p.m. Tuesday as chances of thunderstorms linger.
“The combination of moisture and thunderstorms in the forecast are creating an unstable atmosphere which may make firefighting conditions much more hazardous with wind speeds potentially reaching 50 mph during those storms,” the Forest Service wrote late Tuesday morning.
Nearly 1,400 personnel are assigned to the McKinney Fire, the Forest Service said Tuesday morning.
This story was originally published August 2, 2022 at 9:34 AM with the headline "McKinney Fire updates: Two more bodies found, bringing death toll to 4 people."
