Valley and Butte Wildfires in California Have Destroyed 700 Homes

By John A. Heatherly

More than 23,000 people have fled the Valley fire, north of San Francisco, and a second blaze known as the Butte fire, outside Sacramento. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and firefighters continue to battle the blaze.

Video below:

NBCNews has been following the story…

Kaleigh Alves’ mother only had time to grab birth certificates, a computer and two pictures off the wall before the family joined hundreds of others and fled the monster wildfire approaching Middletown, California.

Two days later, one of Kaleigh’s friends from school was driving by the house with her father. She shot video of what was left and sent the files to Kaleigh.

“I was just in shock when I saw it,” Kaleigh, 16, told NBC News on Tuesday.

What she saw was barely even recognizable as the place where a house once stood. The white fence out front and the mailbox were all that was left in anything close to its original form. The rest was charred remains.

The blaze, known as the Valley Fire, grew to 67,000 acres on Tuesday, more than twice the land area of the city of San Francisco, as firefighters struggled to bring it under control.

California fire authorities reported …read more

Source:: Patriot Outdoor News