NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – On Thursday morning Gov. Jerry Brown joined fire and emergency officials who are fighting the Rocky fire for a briefing on efforts to contain the blaze, which has already destroyed dozens of homes, forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and scorched nearly 70,000 acres in Colusa, Lake and Yolo counties.
“I think this is really a real wake-up call because of the way this fire performed,” said Gov. Brown. “We’re going to get ready – we have resources, we’ll need more, but you can be sure that the California firefighting personnel and all their different departments are ready and we’re going to do everything we possibly can.”
On Friday, Governor Brown declared a state of emergency in California in response to wildfires burning across the state.
On Wednesday, at the request of Cal Fire, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services tasked the California National Guard to deploy 367 more soldiers to help cut fire breaks in vegetation and offer other vital support to firefighters battling the wildfires.
The National Guard also will be building a temporary military bridge across Cache Creek at Highway 16, near the site of the governor's briefing, which will help bring supplies and personnel into the area more rapidly.
After Wednesday's National Guard deployment, there are now approximately 600 California National Guard troops actively working with nearly 11,000 firefighters battling 19 active wildfires across the state.
The Rocky fire alone has already destroyed 43 homes and 53 structures and outbuildings, officials reported.
As of Thursday morning, it had burned 69,600 acres and was 40-percent contained, with more than 3,600 firefighters assigned to the incident.