California highway reopens after blaze forces 6-day closure

UPDATE: 9/10/2018 9:03 a.m. Officials say a major interstate near the California-Oregon border has reopened six days a wildfire roaring along the roadway forced its closure.

California Department of Transportation spokeswoman Denise Yergenson says one lane in each direction of Interstate 5 reopened Monday at 8:30 a.m.

She says no vehicles carrying potential flammable materials will be allowed along a 17-mile stretch between Antlers Bridge in Lakehead and Flume Creek Road south of the city of Dunsmuir, California. She says that includes vehicles carrying hay, wood chips, lumber, logs.

The highway that traverses the West Coast from Mexico to Canada and serves as a main artery for commerce had been closed since Wednesday, forcing trucks and other traffic on smaller roads that has added 100 miles (160 kilometers) to their journeys.

UPDATE: 9/6/2018 8:19 a.m. Fire officials say a wildfire roaring through timber and brush on both sides of a Northern California highway tripled in size overnight, prompting mandatory evacuations.

The U.S. Forest Service said Thursday the blaze burning along Interstate 5 near Redding had grown to 23 square miles (60 square kilometers). It was 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) on Wednesday.

The only interstate highway connecting Oregon to California remains closed as fire burns on both sides of it.

Officials did not immediately say how many people the evacuation order affected. The fire is in a rural area with scattered homes.

Officials said the blaze was human-caused but they didn’t indicate whether it was arson or accident.

Truckers abandoned their vehicles as flames roared up hillsides. Officials say about 17 big-rigs were abandoned and at least four caught fire.

A wildfire nearby that was only contained last week left neighborhoods in ruins and killed eight people.

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A fast-growing wildfire in Northern California has prompted officials to close both directions of Interstate 5 connecting California to Oregon.

Shasta-Trinity National Forest officials said in messages posted on Twitter and in an incident report that the interstate is closed from 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Redding to an area 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) south of Mount Shasta.

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The incident report said the fire that started Wednesday afternoon had exploded to 500 acres. The Delta Fire comes just weeks after a devastating fire destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and killed eight people in the same area.

The Shasta County Sheriff’s office was evacuating people on both sides of Interstate 5. An evacuation center was set up at the Mt. Shasta Community Center.

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