Extreme heat turned McKinney fire into unstoppable monster, bringing death and destruction
YREKA, Calif. — It was the perfect storm of factors for a deadly wildfire, experts say — extreme heat, dense and dry vegetation, and erratic winds and lightning brought on by persistent thunderstorms.
As the 55,000-acre McKinney fire continued to burn in steep and difficult terrain in Klamath National Forest on Monday, emergency crews encountered increasingly grim evidence of the wildfire’s extraordinary and explosive growth. At the same time, thunderstorms continued to inject unpredictability into the firefighting operations.
“It makes things very scary out there,” said Brian Nieuwenhuis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Medford, Ore.
The bodies of at least two people who were attempting to flee the fire were discovered Sunday inside a vehicle in a driveway west of Klamath River, while an anthropology team from Chico State has been summoned to determine whether additional remains found Monday belonged to humans or animals,
