YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. – Nearly 4,000 firefighters worked in blistering temperatures Saturday to corral a huge complex of fires in rugged wilderness as authorities found a body in a blackened part of the desert.
The body of Gerald Guthrie, 57, was found by a search-and-rescue crew, said Cindy Beavers of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Guthrie had been missing since Tuesday, when fire swept through Pioneertown, a former Western movie locale.
His body was found in a charred area at the base of a small hill less than a half-mile from his two-story domed home, which escaped the flames.
Fire officials reported some progress on the fires, which covered more than 110 square miles in Southern California about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.
A 59,000-acre fire was 40 percent contained, its eastern flank no longer a problem but its western side still a major concern. An evacuation remained in effect in one area, but were lifted in several others. Ignited by lightning a week ago it roared to life a few days later, destroying 56 desert homes.
An adjacent complex of fires that merged with the larger fire Friday grew to more than 12,000 acres but was still 5 percent contained. Crews protected a handful of homes in a canyon, but there were no evacuations.
Cate Baker-Hall, 55, an artist, said her three-story home burned to the ground. She lost a collection of more than 100 paintings, lithographs and other art, and a manuscript of a book she had just completed on the 1960s British band, The Zombies, she said.
The house “is just gone,” she said. “I’m trying to take the Buddha approach and deal with today. There’s only so many tears you can cry.”
Meanwhile, in southern Montana, firefighters mostly east of Billings were battling four large fires that charred about 150,000 acres. The fires threatened about 125 homes, officials said.
In Wyoming, a wind shift helped firefighters keep a wildfire from advancing toward Devils Tower National Monument. Four fires about 5 miles southwest of Devils Tower have burned about 13,700 acres – about 21 square miles – of mostly shrubs and ponderosa pine. About 10 percent of the fires were contained.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
