Desperately fleeing the burning hills of Northern California

SACRAMENTO, Californi (AP) — As the flames closed in on tiny Berry Creek in the Sierra Nevada foothills early last Wednesday, Misty Spires and her boyfriend hooked a fire hose to a hydrant in a desperate attempt to defend their homes and the town's only laundromat.

They gave up around 4:00 am when propane tanks began exploding and they were dodging embers “as big as my feet”, she said.

But traffic was snarled on the two-lane bridge leading out of town, forcing Spires and others to turn around and drive down a sandbar to escape the flames.

She helped another man load his motorcycle on to the back of her pickup truck before sprinting to safety.

“It was like a war zone, like standing in the breath of hell,” she said.

For the second time in two years, fire has destroyed a mountain community in Butte County. Two years ago it was Paradise, where roughly 19,000 buildings were destroyed and 85 people died in the most destructive wildfire in state history.

This time, it was Berry Creek — an unincorporated town of about 1,200 people in the same remote, rolling, heavily forested mountains that locals described as a peaceful, close-knit community.

Dozens of wildfires have been burning for weeks across California and the United States west, most sparked by lightning strikes.

But the North Complex fire in Northern California surprised fire officials by how quickly it spread after smouldering for weeks in a mostly unpopulated region.

Aided by strong winds, steep terrain and miles of dried out foliage, the fire — more than eight miles (13 kilometres) wide — quickly roared into Butte County on Tuesday.

This time, Paradise was spared. Smaller mountain communities such as Berry Creek and Feather Falls were quickly overwhelmed. Firefighters scrambled to rescue more than 100 people last Tuesday and early Wednesday.

But they couldn't save everyone.

By Saturday, authorities said the fire claimed 12 lives and another 13 remained missing.

Millicent Catarancuic's five-acre property in Berry Creek was a rescue shelter of sorts. She had at least four dogs and several cats, many of whom wandered into her yard and never left after finding a loving home.

Her scattered family had seen much tragedy, but in recent years they had mostly settled at her compound in the hills, where it took a 30-minute drive to get anywhere.

With her sister, Suzan Violet Zurz, and Phil Rubel, an uncle by marriage, the three lived quietly, caring for animals and playing the card game FreeCell on a desktop computer.

They were not foolhardy with fires, having voluntarily evacuated for others. Last Tuesday, they had packed the car and were getting ready to leave when, about 7:00 pm, they changed their minds. They were safe, they assured their families.

Authorities would later find Catarancuic's body near a car, along with those of two others. Zurz and Rubel are still listed as missing. But Zurz's son, Zygy Roe-Zurz, fears the worst.

“It's absolutely devastating to find out the people you love are suddenly and horribly gone,” he said.

“We lived all over the world and finally settled in a place. So much work and so much thought went into being there, and it's just all gone.