ISLAND-ASIAN FUSION: ICamm's gets new chef, flavors MORE IN FOOD:Jude shares easy,tasty recipes for football Sunday, B1
AND IN SNAPSHOTS:More Butte Fire photos
1HE MOl HERLODE'S LEADING INFORMATION SOURCE SINCE1854 • SONORA, CALIFORNIA
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 2015
Butte FireOarS
A special thank you to Union Democrat subscriber Bruce Hill of Jamestown
TODAY 'S READiRBOA RD
With more than 70,000 acres
BRIEFING
charred, cause
Murder charge — West Point woman charged in connection to body found in August.A2
still undetermined By GUY McCARTHY The Union Democrat
Fatal wreck-
Whipsaw winds gusting 10 to 15 miles per hour raked partsofthe Butte Fire before sundown Monday, generating
Antioch man killed in Copperopolis-area crash.A2
BOlin trial — March
more tears and emotions for
2 date said for Valley Springs man charged with murder.A2
some residents whose homes have survivedfive days of fire only to find themselves threatened again on the sixth. The winds subsided and spared at least two homes on Cave City Road before darkness. Elsewhere along Mountain Ranch Road, Railroad Flat Road, and Jesus Maria Road, smoke cleared off parts of the huge burn area tomore fully reveal the nightmare of d e struction that now occupies the geographicheart of Calaveras County. Damage assessment teams have counted 214 structures destroyed by the Butte Fire, including 135 homes. Many of the destroyed homes are next to and near Mountain Ranch, Railroad Flat and Jesus Maria. Burned power poles and drooping power lines have created obvious hazards on
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SPORTS • BRET HARTE FOOTBALL:Cougars top Frogs, 64-21, in Monday night game in Escalon.C1 • SUMMERVILLE FOOTBALL:Bears rally but fall short vs. Pride in Friday night overtime.C1 • CROSS COUNTRY: Sonora's Land fastest freshman at prestigious Jesuit/Davis Invitational .C3 • RAIDERS:Quarterback Carr not seriously injured .C1 • NFL: Hyde runs for two touchdowns, 49ers top Vikings, 20-3.C3
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Maggie Beck/Union Democrat
Tankers (above) make passes over the fire near Rocky Road and French Gulch on Monday. FranciscoRosenthal,ofMokelumne Hill (right), points to a drainage where firefighters successfully stopped the Butte Fire just before it reached his home. A handmade sign (bottom) leans against a mailbox in Murphys.
Fierce firefight saves Moke Hill neighborhood
NEWS ELSEWHERE
stretches ofroad, and vast
sections of forest have been fire-blasted to b l ackened, ash-covered, a l l -but-dead
By ALEX MacLEAN
zones.
The Union Democrat
• PRESIDENTIAL VISIT:Obama works to leave imprint on 2016 election.AS • AUSTRALIA PM: New chief says government remains strong. AS • BACK AT WORK: Kim Davies returns to work, vows not to block deputies from issuing gay marriage licenses. AS • AIR CONTROL: Swedish control tower run by cameras.AS
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Mokelumne Hill residents who were displaced for days by the devastating Butte Fire are returning home to find just how close they came to losing everything. Francisco Rosenthal, who lives with his wife and three children on Peek Circle, said an intense firefight late Thursday night saved his home and others on his street from total destructi on. The 71,523-acre blaze started at 2:26 p.m. last Wednesday east of Jackson. "I'm just elated that they worked as hard as they did," Rosenthal said."Those guys are heroes."
Rosenthal and his family woke up about 3 a.m. Thursday to firefighters knocking on their door and asking them to evacuate by 6 a.m. His wife and three kids, ages 11, 9 and 2,
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Alex MacLean /Union Democrat C
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Information officers at
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Frogtown incident command
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were not sure Monday eve-
ning how much vegetation has not burned inside the Butte Fire perimeter. Plenty of dry, unburned grass and crowded forest remains in some areas, and all that fuel will remain a concern until the Butte Fire is out cold.
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went to a relative's home in Jackson while he
PUBLIC OFFICIALS
Small birds, bees, hornets and dragonflies have returned with much of the smoke scrubbed off the burn at times. But flying creatures and insects can't compensate for big black hills and ridges that used to be covered with forest.
See FIRE/Back Page
SeeMOKE HILL / Back Page Maggie Beck / Union Democrat
Senator TomBerryhill (R).
State Senate District 14: 4641 Spyres, Suite 2, Modesto, CA 95356; 576-6470.Two-year term ends 2016.
Self-suNcient community wi
Assemblyman Frank Bigelow (R). Congressional Distnct 5: 33-C Broadway, Jackson, CA 95642. Phone: 916-319-2005 or 209-223-0505.Two-year term ends 201 6.
By SEAN CARSON The Union Democrat
NEWS TIPS? W hen Bear Dyken pulledinto San Andreas Wednesday he saw a thin wisp of smoke in the distance. By the time he made it home, the smokehad grown toam ushroom cloud. In less than 24 hours, he and his partner fled their home as flames consumed it behind them, leaving behind 31 years work building a self-sufficient community in the hills of Cala-
PHONE: 770-7153,5884534 NEWS: editorouniondemocrat.a>m FEATUR ES: featuresIuniondemocrat.cor n SPORTS: sportsluniondemocratcom EVENTS ANDWEEKENDER: wseksndsrIuniondemocrat txtm lETTERS: lsttsrsOuniondsmocratatm CAlAVERAS BUREAU:770-7197 NEWSR OOMF/DE532-6451 SUBSCR IBERSERVICES: 533-3814
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veras County, called the Cedar Creek Land Trust. "I gure fi d theplace burned down 10 to 15 minutes after we got out. We had run. We could hear the crackling and popping behind us," he said.'When we got out, there were all our neighbors on the top of the hill." The Dykens are one of six households on an 80-acre ranch hit by the 70,000-plus-acre Butte Fire in Calaveras and Amador counties. Run completely off the grid, homes
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were powered by solar panels, water drawn froma well,and food grown in
old oak trees and a little school house," said Dyken. Dyken returned Saturday before several large community gardens. Each resident has a 99-year lease roadblocks were set up to find everyand pays into a community fund to thing lost, he said. "It looks to me like we won't be able maintain water supplies and roads. The property saw the start of what do anything for a couple of weeks until would turn into the Mountain Oaks things cool down. The next step will be Charter School, now with locations in to get construction workers to haul off Ione, San Andreas and Sonora, said burnt vehicles," he said. Dyke n. Across the road, his brother Gary ''We raised kids together, it was pretty idyllic.Therewere 400-to 500-yearSee DYKEN/Back Page
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o u t by fire
Today: High 74, Low 50 Wednesday: High 73, Low 52 Thursday: High 79, Low 46
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