In the first episode of FX’s hit food service drama The Bear (streaming on Hulu), series chef Carmy trades a rare pair of 1944 jeans for a piece of roast beef at his meat supplier. The scene establishes Carmy as a menswear freak at it’s best, the guy who—the hell with simmering pots—would dare to wear a $95 white T-shirt in the kitchen.

As it turns out, the $95 white T-shirt originally came from a store in San Francisco.

Self Edge, a menswear boutique founded in 2006 by Kiya and Demitra Babzani on Valencia Street, gets many calls from Hollywood costume designers. But due to the transient nature of working movie titles and the fact that much of Self Edge’s inventory lacks discernible branding, the store rarely knows when jeans or a shirt will end up on screen. That changed with The Bear.

Internet experts on men’s fashion have found that the shirt from the German brand Merz b. was produced. swans, and there was a flood of stories about the tee. When Babzani saw an Esquire article about the show’s costume designer, Cristina Spiridakis, he searched his email inbox and found his correspondence with Spiridakis. He had, in fact, sold her the shirt in question, as well as some jeans, chinos and another slightly cheaper t-shirt ($95 a pair) by Japanese manufacturer Whitesville, which also appears on the show.

The store design of Self Edge’s San Francisco retail store as it moved to a new location on Valencia Street in 2019.

self edge

“We’re one of the few stores in North America that carry these shirts. Outside of Japan, the Whitesville models are probably only available at three retailers in the world that carry them,” Babzani told SFGATE of Paris Fashion Week over the phone.

As the show became a smash hit, so did the style, and customers flocked to Self Edge’s online store and five retail locations. When customers in the Cabo, Mexico store started asking about it, Babzani knew it was a real phenomenon.

“The t-shirt thing was like the perfect storm of the simplest possible product that can go viral,” Babzani said. “It’s not even a pair of jeans. A pair of jeans can be expensive, but for something that’s gone viral, $95 isn’t a huge hurdle for people used to wearing high-end menswear. It is a pocketless, unbranded and graphic-free white t-shirt. It’s like almost anyone can wear this.”

Babzani declined to say how many shirts the company has sold, but said it was an “embarrassing” number. Halloween triggered a lot of sales and Christmas was even more intense.

“As Christmas rolled around, the number of women who came forward and bought these for their husbands was something I’d never seen before,” he said. The show’s second-season premiere last week prompted another order rush, compounded by the fact that by the start of summer, t-shirt sales typically quadruple (Self Edge’s online store sells a shocking 150 types of blanks -T shirts).

Actor Jeremy Allen White plays Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto in the hit FX series The Bear.

fx

Although many scoff at the price, Babzani explained that there are many reasons for the price. The shirts are made from 100% organic cotton from Greece, which is completely free of chemical treatments. The loopwheel process used in production is the slowest way to make this style of shirt. Merz née Schwanen owns its own factory and pays workers well above the subsistence level, and all packaging is recycled.

“What people overlook is that it costs a lot to make a t-shirt at this level, where everyone is paid fairly and the materials used are super eco-friendly — and not eco-friendly in the greenwashing sense,” Babzani said.

Price aside, there’s still the question of whether a chef would actually wear such an expensive garment in the kitchen, where it inevitably stains like a dishcloth. But according to Babzani, some of his best customers are service workers (and considering this particular t-shirt is white with no logo, a squirt of bleach could do wonders).

Season 2 of the hit FX series The Bear has just premiered.

fx

“One of the largest market segments that we sell to from our US locations is people who work in the restaurant industry and baristas,” Babzani said. “Some of our customers are interested in what we sell because it ages over time.” He cited a recent example of a barista who bought a $300 chambray shirt from Self Edge and used it as workwear for four months wore until it showed permanent battle scars from espresso grounds.

While the show’s viral sales surge was noticeable, it wasn’t exactly a groundbreaking event for the company (although it’s having trouble keeping the shirt in stock and running out of large pieces). However, “The Bear” has sparked endless debates at the Slack company, with observant salespeople spotting tiny details in the show’s promotional photos, such as that the t-shirt was cut slightly shorter, or that Thom Browne was the designer behind the Apron worn by Ayo Edebiri’s sous chef character. And for Halloween last year, the entire staff at the Los Angeles store dressed up as Carmy and even got temporary tattoos. They’ve also put together a collection of pretty solid memes.

Babzani himself is simply delighted to have menswear take center stage in a show highlighting the lifestyles of some of his most loyal customers in the restaurant industry.

“It’s kind of cool to see someone on a show that everyone loves and that’s about a genre that television hasn’t fully explored.”

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The suspect, accused of using a metal pipe to attack a former San Francisco fire officer, was released from custody on Thursday and is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing at the end of May.

Former San Francisco Fire Department Commissioner Don Carmignani suffered serious injuries after he was attacked with a metal pipe by a suspect outside his mother’s San Francisco home in early April, according to prosecutors. According to the prosecutor, Carmignani was therefore unable to testify in the preliminary hearing on Thursday.

The judge on the case granted the prosecution’s request to postpone the hearing to May 23 and released suspect Garret Doty, whom San Francisco police had charged with assault with a deadly weapon, from prison.

Kleigh Hathaway, Doty’s public defender, claims her client was not the attacker in the incident but rather protected himself from the former firefighter, who she says attacked several homeless people with bear spray, including Doty.

Hathaway also released surveillance video, which she says showed Carmignani attacking Doty with bear spray minutes before Carmignani was attacked with the metal pipe.

On April 5, Carmignani called 911 to report three homeless people at a camp outside his mother’s home in the affluent Marina neighborhood, he said in a statement to CNN.

“That evening I arrived at my mother’s house and told these individuals to leave,” Carmignani said in the statement. “The incident culminated in one of the people pulling out a piece of metal pipe and hitting me on the head several times.”

Carmignani was hospitalized and underwent emergency surgery, his statement said.

Carmignani’s attorney, Samuel Ray, said in a statement that the San Francisco Police Department did not respond to the morning call about people camping outside his client’s home and that “no one from the SFPD or the DA’s office ever conducted an interview or attempted to conduct an interview.” Don on his version of events.”

CNN questioned SFPD about Ray’s allegation. The District Attorney says the SFPD has requested an interview on multiple occasions.

Other homeless victims, says the public defender

Video from outside a gas station shared by Camignani’s lawyer appears to show the former firefighter trying to defend himself while being hit by a man with a metal pole. The video does not show the moments before the altercation.

A separate video, also provided by Carmignani’s lawyer and apparently taken from a nearby building, shows the former city official running down the street with Doty at his heels, swinging his rod at Carmignani’s head as he flees .

Doty’s public defender told reporters Wednesday the case was a self-defense case, in part because she says there appears to be a repeating pattern of someone matching Carmignani’s description allegedly walking within a four-block area between November 2021 and his attacked homeless people with bear spray and January 2023, based on police reports provided to her by prosecutors and police.

“In all of them the victims are not housed, the victims are either sleeping in their tents, sitting on a bench and minding their own business,” Hathaway said, citing police reports of eight separate attacks on homeless people included in discovery evidence that she has received. “Luckily, one of them was caught on video.”

CNN has requested the police reports but has not yet received them.

Carmignani has denied being the person in the videos of the bear spray attacks and says he did not commit any of the attacks.

A copy of the video provided by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office shows an apparently homeless man sleeping outside on a sidewalk. According to Hathaway, the video was recorded in November 2021 on the same street as Carmignani’s residence.

“He goes and sprays a giant can of bear spray – the same gun that was used in the Doty incident – he sprays this bear spray on the homeless. Don’t just walk by, focus on the victim’s face for at least a few seconds and then walk away,” she says.

“This man is described as 5’10”, 6’1″, 280, 300 pounds, gray hair, brown hair. Very similar and apt to what Mr. Carmignani looks like,” she said.

“I am confident that my client was aware of his (Carmignani’s) past violence,” Hathaway said, captioning an April 5 video that appears to show the first confrontation between Carmignani and her client. In that video, Hathaway says Doty can be seen running away, and the “first thing he does” is crouch down and cover his head with this coat, “implying that he’s experiencing the violence of the bear spray.” knows and has been exposed to this violence in previous incidents.”

When asked why Carmignani wasn’t charged in connection with the homeless attack, San Francisco District Attorney Brooks Jenkins told reporters Wednesday, “Nothing has been submitted to our office by the police requesting that they do anything for their purpose.” the indictment.”

Jenkins stated that she viewed a video, but that “it’s just an allegation at the moment as to who it is” and that further investigation is needed.

Jenkins added that prosecutors will continue to focus on the April 5 incident. “I am concerned about the incident that brings us to court today,” she said. “So this specific incident and what was happening at that point in time is what is primarily relevant at this point.”

According to Jenkins, Carmignani has not yet given an interview to the San Francisco Police Department, although he did do a sit-down interview with CNN affiliate KPIX.

The CNN Wire
& © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery company. All rights reserved.

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The former San Francisco fire commissioner, who said a homeless man brutally attacked him with a metal pipe, has been accused of instigating the April 5 altercation.

Attorneys representing homeless man Garret Doty said video evidence showed that former San Francisco Fire Department Commissioner Don Carmignani was the attacker and that he doused Doty with bear spray. They also claimed that Carmignani may have been involved in other incidents involving the spraying of homeless people in the Cow Hollow and Marina District neighborhoods.

Carmignani’s attorney, Nick Colla, said his client was “repeatedly hit with a metal rod” by Doty as he retreated nearly two blocks from the original point of contact.

He also denied that Carmignani was involved in any of the other alleged incidents.

“It is unfortunate that the narrative has shifted to the victim’s alleged story while the focus is not at all on the defendant’s well-documented history of violence and harassing behavior,” Colla said in an emailed statement.

Doty was arrested April 5 and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and battery. San Francisco prosecutors said he was acting in self-defense and asked prosecutors to drop the charges.

He was being held in the San Francisco County Jail. A judge on Thursday ordered his release after failing to appear in court for a preliminary hearing.

Prosecutors said Carmignani could not testify in the case because he sustained injuries in the alleged assault. The hearing was postponed to May 23.

On Wednesday, prosecutors released two videos they received from prosecutors. The video shows a man “fitting the physical description of Carmignani” unprovokedly approaching homeless people, according to a press release from the Public Defender’s Office.

“Prosecutors released this evidence because they believed it was relevant to the circumstances surrounding Doty,” the press release said.

In video of the April 5 incident involving Doty, a man appears to be pulling a can out of his jacket pocket. Doty is not seen being sprayed or Carmignani being attacked with the whistle.

In the video, Doty can be seen running away before turning to face the man. In the video, Doty appears to walk away several times while the man follows him.

Doty, left, appears to be walking away as the man follows him. Office of the San Francisco Public Defender

Doty’s attorneys said Carmignani approached her client and sprayed him with bear spray.

“There was a fight between the two men. A third witness told police she heard Carmignani threaten to stab and kill Doty if he did not leave the area. Doty responded to Mr. Carmignani in self-defense,” the public defender’s office said.

The second video, dated November 6, 2021, shows a man spray-spraying a homeless man on Magnolia Street. The public defender’s office said the victim was asleep and the perpetrator took “additional measures to spray him intensely in the face.”

On November 6, 2021, a person in San Francisco appears to spray-spray a homeless man.Office of the San Francisco Public Defender

The public defender’s office charged Carmignani with being involved in seven other bear spray incidents, one of which was on November 11 in which the attacker unzipped the victim’s tent, sprayed bear spray inside and told the victim to “leave my town.” “. .”

In one incident on Jan. 6, the attacker spray-sprayed a man and a woman, took the woman’s wallet, cellphone and earrings, and threw her dog on the ground, the public defender’s office said in a press release.

Carmignani’s attorneys said he was not the man in the 2021 video and denied his involvement in the other incidents, NBC Bay Area reported.

They also released four videos of Doty pulling a long metal gun out of a trash can and attacking Carmignani. In videos obtained by NBC News, a man can be seen repeatedly brandishing a metal object before punching Carmignani twice. Another video shows the man armed with the metal object chasing Carmignani.

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Carmignani told San Francisco-based KPIX-TV on Tuesday that he has had nightmares of someone attacking him since the alleged beating.

“I’m lucky if I get two hours of sleep a night at all,” he said.

He said he had two head wounds and needed a plate placed in his broken jaw.

Minyvonne Burke is senior breaking news reporter at NBC News.

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The Lazy Bear Lodge, custom built with a modern log cabin style in 2005, is located on a 7-acre site off Dewitt Barnett Road in Vilas. It has five guest rooms, a cozy front porch and expansive back deck overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains. Photo by Jan Todd.

By Jan Todd

Luxury linens. Chocolates on the bedside table. Motion detector nightlights to help guests find
their way in the dark. A sprig of fresh rosemary garnishing the breakfast plate.

“It’s the little things that make a difference,” said Marsha Speer, innkeeper with her husband
John at Lazy Bear Lodge Bed and Breakfast near Valle Crucis.

Lea Wilkes of Newberry, South Carolina, credits the magic of Lazy Bear Lodge to the innkeepers themselves. “John and Marsha have a heart for doing what they do. They have a natural curiosity about people and their lives and make everyone feel welcome,” Lea said.

Marsha and John Speer purchased The Lazy Bear Lodge in 2017. The couple moved from their home in Ohio, where John had retired from a career in corporate accounting and Marsha had worked in customer service. With a lifelong love of travel, the two decided to operate their own bed and breakfast, and chose the High Country for its beauty and tourist appeal. Photo by Jan Todd.

She and her husband Patrick visit Lazy Bear two or three times a year. They first visited about eight years ago, when the property was owned by Ann and Mark Winkelman, who built the inn in 2005 and operated it until selling to the Speers in June 2017.

“We had always enjoyed coming to Lazy Bear, so decided to give it a try under the new ownership. Marsha and John quickly became our friends — and they continue to make each stay special,” Lea said.

Lazy Bear Lodge is a five bedroom inn on a 7-acre site off Dewitt Barnett Road in Vilas. Located just 6 miles from the shops and restaurants in Boone, the log cabin styled inn was custom built overlooking beautiful vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Adirondack gliders line the back porches and deck where guests can gaze at the view and watch birds, deer — and even spot an occasional bear.

The inn is decorated in a “mountain modern” style, with plush linens on the beds, classy yet comfy furniture in the guest rooms and living room. Paintings and photographs by local artists adorn the walls, mixed in with stained glass pieces handcrafted by John’s father. One guest room features a signed giclee painting by actress Jane Semour — which the Speers found in a consignment store in Blowing Rock.

Each guest room has its own bath with either a jetted or clawfoot tub, a gas fireplace or stove
and television. Three of the rooms have private balconies. Visitors can also relax in front of the
fire in the spacious living area stocked with games and magazines.

“It’s like a home away from home,” said Penny Painter from Greenville, South Carolina. She
and her husband stay at the Lazy Bear Lodge once or twice a year when they come up to the
High Country to enjoy hiking, shopping in Blowing Rock and visiting the Ashe County Cheese
Factory in West Jefferson.

The inn overlooks layers of the Blue Ridge Mountain, beautiful in any season. Photo by Jan Todd.

“We celebrate our anniversary in March with a trip to the mountains,” she shared. “We’ve been to large B&Bs in our travels, but they are always so busy with lots going on. We like the quiet atmosphere of Lazy Bear.”

The Painters first visited in 2017, shortly after John and Marsha purchased the inn. The place they usually stayed was booked, and Penny found Lazy Bear online.

“We’ve been going back ever since,” she said. “We fell in love with John and Marsha. They are such sweet, genuine people. We were the only guests in the inn that first visit, and we invited them to sit down and eat with us. We got to know them really well.”

Now, whenever the Painters arrive for a visit, Penny opens the front door and calls out, “Honey,
I’m home!”

“The Speers have a real passion for hospitality,” Penny said.

Love of Travel, Love of People

Neither Marsha nor John had a background in the hospitality industry prior to purchasing the
inn. John earned an accounting degree from Ohio State and was a financial executive with a
large public manufacturing company in Columbus, Ohio. Fellow Ohio State Buckeye Marsha
graduated with a degree in home economics with a specialty in textiles and clothing. She
worked in retail and in customer service, then stayed home to raise their two boys.

Marsha and John met during high school, when they both worked at McDonald’s in Lancaster,
Ohio, southeast of Columbus. “We didn’t go to the same high school,” John said. “She
attended a Catholic school and I was at the public school.”

A hand carved mantle with lounging bears adorns the wood-burning fireplace in the dining room at The Lazy Bear Lodge. Above the mantle is a tribute to Marsha and John’s home state of Ohio. Photo by Jan Todd.

Marsha asked John to her senior prom, and “the rest was history,” she said. They have been married for 42 years. Their son Joshua lives in San Francisco, and their son Justin and his wife Leslie live in Asheville with their baby, Isaac.

Travel was always important to the Speers, and they vacationed all over the country. “We took our boys out west to National Parks, on beach trips to Hilton Head, to Boston and New York. Every year we’d plan a trip,” Marsha said.

Both of her sons spent time in Germany during college. “That changed who they were. They
really grew up and gained a new perspective of the world, working and living abroad,” she said.

As the boys grew up and Marsha and John became empty nesters, they frequented bed and breakfast inns (B&Bs) in their travel.

“We’ve probably stayed in 70 B&Bs,” Marsha shared. “Our most memorable was one in Bath, England. It was a historic home, a beautiful yellow house with 14 foot ceilings. It was an amazing experience.”

Their passion for travel and their social nature kindled a desire to operate an inn of their own. John was considering an early retirement from the corporate world, and he and Marsha started
talking about what kind of business they could run together — one that would marry their skill
sets.

“We kept coming back to the idea of running a B&B,” John said. “I have plenty of business
experience, and Marsha has cooking skills and knows how to take care of people.”

Wes and Kathryn Salisbury, guests at The Lazy Bear Lodge, relax in the inn’s living area prior to breakfast. Photo by Jan Todd.

Innkeeping 101

After John retired, the couple spent three years planning the business, searching for a property and preparing their own home to sell. They remodeled baths and updated other rooms in their house, doing all the work themselves.

“My grandfather built homes and my dad taught me skills in carpentry. Marsha’s dad was a
plumber and taught me how to do some basic plumbing as well,” John said. These skills have come in handy as an innkeeper, he added. “You need to be handy, because an inn requires constant maintenance.”

They began their business planning by attending a trade conference for innkeepers, where they
attended a seminar targeted to potential B&B owners. They learned a lot about what to look for
when purchasing an inn, how to make the venture profitable, which internet and software tools
were best to manage the property, best practices and mistakes to avoid.

Tucked on the lower floor of The Lazy Bear Lodge are the owners’ quarters, with two bedrooms, a kitchen and living area and a private porch overlooking the mountains. Photo by Jan Todd.

“We still go to conferences and trade shows. There is always something more to learn,” John
said.

The Speers quickly decided to purchase an inn rather than start one from scratch. “You have to
have really deep pockets to build or renovate a property and open a new inn,” John explained.
“It probably takes about two years of work before you even open, and you start with no
clientele. The first year you might expect about 20% occupancy — and you really need about
50% occupancy rate to make the business financially viable. So with a new inn, you’ll likely
have several years with very little cash flow.”

“There was no lag time in the operation when we bought The Lazy Bear,” Marsha recalled. “The
Winkelmans were moving out, we were moving in, and guests were at the front desk checking
in all at the same time. It was chaos!”

Ann Winkelman stayed around a couple of weeks to train the Speers and help with the
changeover. “They were good innkeepers and had a lot of repeat guests,” Marsha said about
the Winkelmans.

The dining room offers cozy fireplace-side tables for breakfast on a cold winter’s day, or outdoor seating overlooking the mountains. Photo by Jan Todd.

“Many people romanticize the thought of owning a B&B. They picture socializing with guests,
serving meals. They don’t stop and think about managing the house,” Marsha said. “After the
pandemic, we worked 130 consecutive days. John and I were staining the outside walls, I was
taking care of guests and doing most of the inside work because we lacked staff. It was the
nitty gritty side of the business.”

The best part of the business is getting to know their guests, the Speers said.

“We’ve made a lot of friends. We’ve even gone to visit some of our guests in their own homes on our time off,” John said.

In the winter of 2022, a big snowstorm stranded a houseful of guests at The Lazy Bear for two
days. “It snowed for 30 hours straight,” Marsha remembered. “Nobody could go anywhere. I
cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had chicken and noodles in the crock pot and made
pizza for dinner. It was actually a lot of fun — a highlight we’ll always remember.”

“We had one couple who had come to ski, so they snowboarded down our driveway,” John
added. “I was clearing the parking lot and the driveway with a snowblower and one of the guys
staying here pitched in and helped. After the weekend was over, one of the other guests was
leaving and asked the name of the assistant innkeeper so he could thank him, too. I told him it
wasn’t a staff member — it was another guest!”

Making the List

During their first year of operation, the Speers redecorated and refurnished each guest room
and the common areas. They spruced up the gardens outdoors and later remodeled the dining
area to include a large self-service station — with a selection of snacks and beverages and a
refrigerator for guests to use.

Marsha Speer assembles Monte Crisco sandwiches for the morning breakfast at The Lazy Bear Lodge. Photo by Jan Todd.

The Speers’ hospitality and attention to detail did not go unnoticed. Select Registry — the
“gold standard” of boutique lodging listings — reached out to include The Lazy Bear Lodge on
its prestigious list.

Select Registry includes properties offering “outstanding accommodations and one-of-a-kind
experiences,” according to its website. Properties must offer personalized service, unique
architecture, cleanliness, outstanding food and characteristics that are “a step above the rest.”

From their own travel experience, the Speers were familiar with the Registry prior to purchasing
The Lazy Bear.

“You’re not going to have a bad experience in a Select Registry inn,” John said. “They send inspectors out every two years to stay overnight in the inn, just to make sure everything meets their standards.”

Marsha’s breakfast entrees include pecan encrusted French toast, puff pastry with sausage,
Monte Crisco sandwiches and other delectable delights.

Marsha Speer’s Monte Crisco sandwiches are a guest favorite at Lazy Bear Lodge. Layered with thinly sliced ham and Jarlsberg cheese, the sandwich is dipped in an egg batter, fried on a griddle and then sprinkled with powdered sugar. Marsha serves hers on a swirl of raspberry preserves with a hint of cayenne, and garnishes with fresh raspberries and a sprig of rosemary. Photo by Jan Todd.

“I alternate between sweet and savory every other day,” she said. “I try not to replicate a meal
when we have returning guests.”

Beth and Richard Davis, from Chapel Hill, are regular guests at the inn.

“Marsha is always looking for new recipes, so we never know what we’re going to be served, but it is always delicious,” Beth said. “Lazy Bear is our favorite Bed & Breakfast.”

Living Inn

John and Marsha live on the premises, in the owners’ quarters located downstairs from the inn’s main floor. They have two bedrooms, a living area with a kitchen, and a private deck. Their living quarters offer a quiet space for the Speers to retreat and replenish their energy, while providing access if the guests need anything.

While Marsha handles the breakfast meal, John makes a
cappuccino for a guest. Photo by Jan Todd.

They do hang out upstairs sometimes to mingle with guests, particularly in the mornings after breakfast.

“We tell them about the area, suggest places for them to visit,” Marsha said.
“It is really important for us to greet guests when they come in,” she continued. “We’ve stayed at plenty of B&Bs where our check-in information and keys are in a dropbox, and we don’t
even encounter the innkeepers.”

The Speers have a dropbox for those instances when they can’t be at the inn when a particular guest arrives but do their best to provide a personalized welcome.

Brewed coffee and a variety of teas are available for early risers on the selfservice station at The Lazy Bear Lodge. During breakfast hours, guests may request cappuccino and espresso as well. Photo by Jan Todd.

“You really have to care about people in this business and enjoy serving,” Marsha said.

Marsha said people often ask them about being an innkeeper, and how she feels after over five
years of entertaining “constant houseguests.” Would they do it all again?

“Yes,” she said. “Definitely. We’d do it all again.”

Related

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PETALUMA (KPIX) – A headstrong 500-pound black bear safely descended from a Petaluma backyard sequoia tree Sunday night, lured out of its sky-high hideout with the help of fish and other food, and ended a day-long stalemate with wildlife officials.

The bear walked down the sidewalk and eventually back into the nearby open space.

“We see a lot of deer walking up and down the street, but no bears,” said Petaluma’s Charlie Llorence.

“We really hope he is fine and I know that I trust all the people who try to help him,” added Jerri Llorence.

The Llorences live within walking distance of where the bear landed in Raymond Heights.

“We had our binoculars and we could only see them from the back and it was really cool,” said Charlie.

For most of the day, the bear was the star of the show, mesmerizing the neighbors as it sought refuge.

At 2:30 am, Ralph Haney’s dog started barking, so he went outside and found that his fence had been torn open.

“We have a few possums nearby, an occasional skunk,” Haney said. “There was no way a small rodent did that. Something broke that fence. That took some strength. “

Sheila Katz saw what it was doing when she got home early in the morning.

“I got out of my car and looked down the driveway and saw a bear running slowly past and said, ‘Oh my god, that’s a bear!’ It’s a bear! It’s a bear! ‘”, Remembers Katz.

A neighbor snapped a photo of the bear as it rushed through backyards trying to escape a growing number of police and animal control officers. The frightened bear, looking for the only safety he could find, climbed 25 meters on a sequoia tree.

Mark Scott, Executive Director of North Bay Animal Services, was there and witnessed the event.

“He did that in about, I don’t know, about six seconds? So he’s a big boy – it was amazing to see, ”said Scott.

The animal stayed there for the rest of the day, hiding behind the foliage as best it could, when dozens of people came to enjoy the unusual sight.

“It’s alive! It’s something we don’t normally see and I think it’s just all the mystique of what a bear is, ”said Aubrey McMillon.

“It’s one thing to get a mountain lion, but you don’t usually hear anything from a bear,” says Eliza Fischer.

At some point a flock of crows started circling the tree and made a terrible noise when they discovered what was inside.

Doris Duncan, executive director of Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, said she understood the fascination of seeing something this unusual, but hoped people would understand how terrified the bear was in its predicament.

“He got stuck and everyone here scared him up the tree and he doesn’t feel safe coming down yet,” she said. “Besides, it’s daylight. He knows that he will have some problems if he starts roaming these streets. “

She said it appeared to be a very healthy male black bear that weighed maybe 500 pounds. It was too high to use a calming arrow safely, so the plan was to just wait for dark and let it come down on its own.

© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report

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Dramatic aerial images captured the massive destruction wrought by wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington which have killed at least seven people including a 12-year-old boy and his grandmother. 

Ninety major fires across 13 western states have already burned more than 3.4 million acres – the size of Connecticut – and are still spreading in high winds amid fears that the number of casualties will rise. 

‘This could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our state’s history,’ Oregon Gov Kate Brown told a press conference. 

Entire communities have been razed with five towns ‘substantially destroyed’ and widespread evacuations taking place under apocalyptic orange skies. 

Only ‘smoldering ruins’ remained of large parts of the town of Talent, Oregon, said local resident Sandra Spelliscy. 

‘There are numerous neighborhoods where there are no structures left standing… dozens of homes [gone] and literally nothing except the skeletons of a chimney or an appliance,’ she said. 

Twelve-year-old Wyatt Tofte and his grandmother Peggy Mosso died in a blaze in the Santiam Valley community of Lyons, about 50 miles south of Portland. The boy’s mother is currently in hospital in critical condition after suffering serious burns.

The fire also was suspected of causing at least one death outside of Ashland, Oregon, while in Washington state a one-year-old boy named Uriel was killed and his parents Jake and Jamie Hyland were severely burned fleeing a fire in Okanogan County, police said.

Another three were feared dead in the California Bear Fire that swept through Butte County on Tuesday night.

MEDFORD, OREGON: Northridge Terrace is seen left in September 2019 and right after it was razed by this week’s West Coast wildfires which have ravaged communities and brought apocalyptic orange skies 

The map above shows 103 fires that have already burned more than 3.4 million acres across the western United States

TALENT, OREGON: Mountain View Estates in September 2019 (left) and September 2020 (right) after the massive wildfires. Only ‘smoldering ruins’ remained of large parts of the town of Talent, local resident Sandra Spelliscy said 

MEDFORD, OREGON: These satellite images show the destruction in western Oregon where officials fear more deaths

PHOENIX, OREGON: A close-up of the city of 4,500 people which has been devastated by the Alameda Fire 

TALENT, OREGON: The Rogue Valley Highway 99 in June 2018 (left) and on Wednesday this week (right) 

OREGON COAST: A satellite image of the state’s Pacific coast in December 2016 (left) and September 2020 (right) 

PHOENIX, OREGON: This infrared satellite image shows an overview of the destruction, with burned vegetation and property in black and grey, and healthy vegetation that has not been burned in red 

Wyatt Tofte, 12, (far left) and his grandmother Peggy Mosso (in the right-hand picture, left in dark blue) died in a wildfire burning near the Santiam Valley community of Lyons, about 50 miles south of Portland. The boy’s mother is currently in hospital in critical condition

Jake and Jamie Hyland were severely burned and their one-year-old son Uriel was killed as the family fled from a wildfire in Okanogan County, Washington, on Sunday night

Dramatic: The San Francisco Bay Bridge and the city skyline are bathed in apocalyptic orange as smoke and haze blows over the city, as seen from the artificial Treasure Island 

Butte county firefighters watch as flames tower over their truck during the Bear fire in Oroville, California on September 9

Security officials survey the Bear Lakes Estates neighborhood which was left devastated by the Almeda fire in Phoenix, Oregon

Houses and vehicles in the Bear Lakes Estates neighborhood which were left devastated by the Almeda fire 

Interstate 5 is seen in the background in the aftermath of the Almeda fire in Phoenix, Oregon. The road appeared to serve as a divider as nothing on the opposite side of the road was harmed by the fire

Homes were essentially wiped from the map as the fire took hold and laid claim to everything in its path, blown by the wind

Interstate 5 is seen on the left as the Bear Lakes Estates neighborhood is left devastated

A satellite image shows wildfires near Colton, Oregon on Wednesday as the scores of wildfires continued to rage 

One-year-old boy is killed and his parents are severely burned as they fled Washington wildfire

Jake and Jamie Hyland and their infant son Uriel were evacuating their property in rural Okanogan at around midnight on Sunday when they got trapped by the Cold Springs Fire. 

The family’s scorched truck was found abandoned on Tuesday afternoon, before search teams discovered Jake and Jamie, who is pregnant, gravely injured on the banks of the Columbia River. Baby Uri was already dead. 

The parents were transported to Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster before being airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. 

Jamie, 26, suffered burns covering 40 to 50 percent of her body and underwent surgery on her arms, a relative wrote on a GoFundMe page.  

Jake, 31, was burned on 25 percent of his body and was preparing for surgery on his arms as well.    

‘They are both still critical at this point, but Jamie is more so than Jake,’ the relative wrote.   

The Hyland family, who live outside Portland in Renton, had been visiting their house in Okanogan for Labor Day weekend. 

The relative said the remote property doesn’t have cell service, so it’s possible the family didn’t receive alerts about the fire blazing toward them until it was too late to evacuate safely.  

The Cold Springs Fire erupted near Omak on Sunday night and has already torched more than 163,000 acres. It was 10 percent contained as of Wednesday night. 

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but Okanogan County Sheriff Tony Hawley said Uri’s death will be treated as a homicide if it turns out to be an arson.  

Hawley praised the efforts of firefighters battling blazes around his community but expressed frustration with a lack of resources. 

He attributed aid delays to the fact that dozens of wildfires are currently burning across the state of Washington and around the western US. 

‘We’re competing for resources just like everyone across the nation,’ he said.  

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told the Sacramento Bee confirmed that three people have died. Their identities have not yet been released. 

The remains of three victims were found in two separate locations of the same fire, Honea said, bringing the total death toll from this summer’s devastating spate of California wildfires to at least 11. 

Hornea said at least 12 people remain missing in Butte County as the Bear Fire rages on. 

In Oregon, one victim was found close to where the Almeda Fire began near homes in Medford on Tuesday. 

Firefighters retreated from uncontrollable blazes in Oregon as officials gave residents ‘go now’ orders to evacuate, meaning they had only minutes to leave their homes.

‘It was like driving through hell,’ Jody Evans told local television station NewsChannel21 after a midnight evacuation from Detroit, about 50 miles west of Salem. 

In Okanogan County, Washington, the Hyland family got trapped by the Cold Springs Fire as they evacuated their property near Omak on Sunday night.  

The family’s scorched truck was found abandoned on the side of a road on Tuesday afternoon, before search and rescue teams discovered dad Jake and mom Jamie, who is pregnant, gravely injured on the banks of the Columbia River. Their one-year-old son Uri was already dead.

Jamie, 26, suffered burns covering 40 to 50 percent of her body and underwent surgery on her arms, a relative wrote in on a GoFundMe page.  

Jake, 31, was burned on 25 percent of his body and was preparing for surgery on his arms as well.  

Leanna Mikesler, from Clovis, California, said she had been forced to evacuate her home to escape wildfires before, but it was ’10 times harder’ during the coronavirus pandemic.

‘They call… the evacuation. And then you go from there to see if your house has been burned down,’ she said. 

Across the United States wildfires have burned nearly 4.7 million acres in 2020, the highest year-to-date area since 2018, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Most of the fires are in western states, where 17 new large blazes were reported on Wednesday, bringing the total to 90 that have burned more than 3.4 million acres – an area nearly the size of Connecticut.

Over a century of efforts by federal and state agencies to suppress naturally occurring blazes have left forests replete with dry timber and brush that provides fuel for large wildfires.

Home construction has encroached on some forests in recent decades, and owners are watching their houses burn as firefighters are unable to save property. 

Half-dozen fire experts who spoke to AP agreed that more extreme fire behavior in recent years has been driven by drought and warming temperatures they attribute to climate change. Among the most concerning developments is that fast-moving wildfires leave less time for warnings or evacuations.

Recently ‘we have seen multiple fires expand by tens of thousands of acres in a matter of hours, and 30 years or more ago that just wasn’t fire behavior that we saw,’ said Jacob Bendix, a professor of geography and the environment at Syracuse University who studies wildfires. 

Hotter temperatures, longer fire seasons and an estimated 140 million dead trees from a five-year drought mean that ‘fires in California are moving faster and growing larger’, said University of Utah fire expert Philip Dennison.

Mike Flannigan, who directs the Western Partnership for Wildland Fire Science at Canada’s University of Alberta, remembers the first report of a fire-created thunderstorm in 1986.

‘They were rare events, and now they’ve become commonplace,’ he said. ‘It’s because these fires are higher intensity.’

An orange glow fills the sky above the Embarcadero as smoke from various wildfires burning across Northern California mixes with the marine layer, blanketing San Francisco in darkness, on September 9, 2020 in San Francisco, California

San Francisco skyline is seen from Dolores Park in San Francisco, California on September 9. More than 300,000 acres are burning across the northwestern state including 35 major wildfires, with at least five towns ‘substantially destroyed’ and mass evacuations taking place

The Bobcat fire rages above Rincon Fire Station on Highway 39 in the San Gabriel Mountains, California

A view of the San Francisco Bay Bridge under an orange sky in the afternoon in San Francisco, California. The blazes across the states have made major metropolitan areas look apocalyptic 

An orange sky filled with wildfire smoke hangs above hiking trails at the Limeridge Open Space in Concord, California

A singed ice machine sits over a burned store during the Bear Fire, part of the North Lightning Complex fires, in unincorporated Butte County, California on Wednesday

Brown smoke from wildfires blowing westward in the atmosphere from California’s Sierra Nevada to the Coast Ranges and from Oregon can be seen on Wednesday

A prime example is the so-called Creek Fire in Sierra National Forest near Yosemite National Park, which exploded through miles of drought- and beetle-killed timber, moving so fast that it trapped hundreds of campers.

‘When you have a fire run 15 miles in one day, in one afternoon, there’s no model that can predict that,’ US Forest Service forester Steve Lohr said. ‘The fires are behaving in such a way that we’ve not seen.’

Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for California’s state fire authority, said of the Creek Fire: ‘You add the winds, the dry conditions, the hot temperatures, it’s the perfect recipe. This fire is just burning at an explosive rate.’

The phenomenon isn’t restricted to California. Doug Grafe, chief of Fire Protection at the Oregon Department of Forestry, said it was unprecedented in his state for fires this week to spread from the crest of the Cascade Mountains into the valleys below, and so quickly, ‘carrying tens of miles in one period of an afternoon and not slowing down in the evening – (there is) absolutely no context for that in this environment’. 

Winds of up to 50 miles per hour sent blazes racing tens of miles within hours, burning hundreds of homes as firefighters fought at least 35 major blazes across an area of Oregon nearly twice the size of New York City. 

Parts of Medford, Oregon, a popular retirement location with over 80,000 residents in the state’s scenic Rogue Valley, were under evacuation orders or warnings as a growing wildfire closed a section of Interstate 5, the primary north-south highway in the West.

The fire moved north to Medford from Ashland, where it started on Tuesday. The blaze did little damage to Ashland, home to the historic stages of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which normally draws more than 350,000 theatergoers a year.

The Holiday Farm fire is seen burning in the mountains around McKenzie Bridge, Oregon on September 9, 2020

Three chairs are all that remain at the Gates Post office in Gates, Oregon on Wednesday. The post office was destroyed along with several other buildings in the Santiam Canyon community as a result of the Santiam Fire

Charred debris is seen after the Bear Fire burned through Berry Creek, California

A swing and a burned-out vehicle are seen after the Bear Fire tore through Berry Creek, California

A scorched car rests in a clearing following the Bear Fire in Butte County. The blaze, part of the lightning-sparked North Complex, expanded at a critical rate of spread as winds buffeted the region

Charred items are seen after the Bear Fire burned through Berry Creek, California

A plume rises from the Bear Fire as it burns along Lake Oroville in Butte County, California

Appliances are seen scattered over the ground after the Bear Fire burned through Berry Creek including an old metal oven

Hundreds of horses have been brought to the fairgrounds in Salem by people fleeing the fires, along with llamas, goats and other animals. The Red Cross is helping people at the fairgrounds, which has been turned into an evacuation center

But as the blaze moved northward, it heavily damaged the small town of Talent with about 6,000 residents and Phoenix, with around 5,000, according to local police..  

Medford, with over 80,000 residents, was under evacuation orders or warnings as a growing wildfire closed a section of Interstate 5, the primary north-south highway in the West. 

The fire is suspected so far to have caused one death north of Ashland, said Rich Tyler, spokesman for the Oregon State Fire Marshal.

Brown saw no respite to the hot, windy weather and requested a federal emergency declaration for the state.

‘Absolutely no area in the state is free from fire,’ said Doug Graf, chief of fire protection for the Oregon Department of Forestry. 

The Oregon town of Mill City, about 65 miles south of Portland with a population around 1,900, also had major damage, and Malden, with about 200 people in eastern Washington state, was destroyed on Monday.

In central California, the Creek Fire about 35 miles  north of Fresno tore through a forest killed by drought and bark beetles as military helicopters pulled campers, hikers and residents out of the area.

Robert Pylant, 65, locates his fire safe in the rubble of his mobile home, early Wednesday in Gates, Oregon. All the trailers in Oak Park Trailer Park were destroyed along with the majority of the homes along East Sorbin Avenue

Hundreds of homes including entire communities were razed by wildfires in the western United States on September 9 as officials warned of potential mass deaths under apocalyptic orange skies

At least five towns were ‘substantially destroyed’ in Oregon as widespread evacuations took place across the northwestern state, governor Kate Brown said

Oregon Governor Kate Brown called the extreme heat and wind a ‘once in a lifetime event,’ as climate scientists blamed human activities for higher average temperatures that have supercharged fires.

‘This is proving to be an unprecedented and significant fire event for our state,’ Brown told a press briefing.  

‘This could be the greatest loss in human lives and property due to wildfire in our state´s history,’ Brown said, without providing details. 

Officials said 64,000 people had been evacuated from their homes as 28 major fires raged across the most populated US state. 

Evacuations were ordered for a broad area around a massive 200,000-acre wildfire burning north of Sacramento. Residents of more than a dozen towns including the city of Oroville were either told to evacuate immediately or be prepared to go. 

The fire raged perilously close to the town of Paradise, which was burned to the ground in 2018 by a wildfire, killing 85 people. 

Climate scientists blame global warming for extreme wet and dry seasons in the West that have caused grasses and scrub to flourish then dry out, leaving abundant fuel for fires.

In California, all 18 national forests were closed due to ‘unprecedented and historic fire conditions’.

To the south, the Creek Fire, about 35 miles north of Fresno, tore through the Sierra National Forest, which was susceptible due to drought and bark beetle damage, destroying over 360 homes and structures. 

President Barack Obama tweeted his concern over the dangers of climate change and urged voters to vote 

People gather at Alamo Square under an orange and yellow overcast sky overlooking the The Painted Ladies

A view of Cupid’s Span, a sculpture by Claes Oldenburge and Coosje van Bruggen, in the foreground and the Ferry Building Clock Tower in the background under an orange overcast sky in the afternoon in San Francisco

Traffic lights and car lights illuminate California Street during an orange overcast sky over the financial district in the afternoon in San Francisco. California wildfire smoke high in the atmosphere over the San Francisco Bay Area blocked the sunlight and turned the sky a dark orange and yellow shade for most of the day

Under darkened skies from wildfire smoke, a sailboat makes its way past the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and lights at Oracle Park Wednesday,

On Wednesday morning, people in San Francisco and elsewhere in California woke to a deep orange sky that triggered apocalyptic visions in a year already rife with disturbing events.

Skies so dark at times that it appeared more night than day were accompanied in some places with ash falling like snow, the cause being massive wild fires filling the air with smoke and cinders.

‘The orange skies this morning are a result of wildfire smoke in the air,’ San Francisco Bay air quality officials said in a tweet.

‘These smoke particles scatter blue light and only allow yellow-orange-red light to reach the surface, causing skies to look orange.’

As smoke gets thick in some areas, it blocks sunlight causing dark skies, the officials explained.

Photos of the eerie scene, particularly of a San Francisco skyline fit for a dystopian science fiction film, spread quickly on social media.

‘Is there a word for ‘the apocalypse is upon us burnt sienna?’ read one tweet fired off by someone who felt using the word ‘orange’ to describe the sky was being too kind.

Others likened the scenes to planets other than Earth.

People from San Francisco to Seattle woke Wednesday to hazy clouds of smoke lingering in the air, darkening the sky to an eerie orange glow that kept street lights illuminated into midday, all thanks to dozens of wildfires throughout the West

Looking down Lombard Street, Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill at right and the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, are darkened by wildfire smoke

Under darkened skies from wildfire smoke, a waiter carries a tray of Irish Coffee to people having lunch at the Buena Vista Cafe Wednesday in San Francisco. The photo was taken just after midday 

Lunchtime on Wednesday in San Francisco has an otherworldly glow about it thanks to the smoke from the states wildfires 

The sky was turned orange as hazy clouds of smoke lingered in the air all day long which saw the street lights remain on

California wildfire smoke high in the atmosphere over the San Francisco Bay Area blocked the sunlight and turned the sky a dark orange and yellow shade for most of the day on Wednesday

‘If literal fire skies don’t wake us up to climate change, then nothing will,’ tweeted YouTube influencer and Zadiko tea startup chief Zack Kornfeld.

‘Enjoy joking about how crazy this year is because we made this mess and it’s only going to get worse.’

Dark skies blocking the sun chilled temperatures at what has historically been the warmest time year in San Francisco.

‘Geo-color imagery shows a very thick multilevel smoke deck over much of California,’ the US National Weather Service said in a tweet.

‘This smoke is filtering the incoming energy from the sun, causing much cooler temperatures and dark dreary red-shifted skies across many areas.’ 

An orange sky in the early afternoon as seen from King Street in San Francisco

People sit at Alamo Square under an orange and yellow overcast sky overlooking the The Painted Ladies, the iconic row of historical Victorian homes with a downtown backdrop

An orange sky at Alamo Square Park in the afternoon in San Francisco, California

An orange sky in the early afternoon with the San Francisco Bay Bridge in the background as seen from King Street in San Francisco

Traffic lights and car lights illuminate an intersection under an orange overcast sky in the afternoon in San Francisco

Smoke hangs over the San Francisco skyline on Wednesday as dozens of wildfires rage across California

A satellite image shows smoke from dozens of wildfires in California and Oregon billowing over the Pacific Ocean

Two of California’s largest wildfires are located just outside of San Francisco, which is seen covered in smoke on Wednesday

A frightening red haze has been cast over towns in Oregon as 35 wildfires rage around the state

Several Oregon residents shared photos of red-stained skies on social media. The photo above was taken in the middle of the day in Salem  

Similar red skies are seen in Northern California as the Creek Fire continues its path through Fresno County outside Yosemite

Smoke from California wildfires obscures the sky over Oracle Park as the Seattle Mariners take batting practice before their baseball game against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday in San Francisco

Golfers warm up on the driving range during the preview day of the Safeway Open in Napa, California, on Wednesday

A man walks along the Redwood highway by the Pacific Ocean as smoke covers Orick, California, on Wednesday

A woman crosses a street as smoke from wildfires covers an area near Eureka, California, on Thursday

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday night declared a state of emergency as his hard-hit state struggled to beat back the blazes.

The Labor Day weekend heat wave fueled new fires that pushed the state to set a new record for number of acres burned with 2,178,015 as of Tuesday night.  

The previous record was set just two years ago and included the deadliest fire in state history, the Camp Fire, which ripped through the town of Paradise and killed 85 people in November 2018.  

Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff said the new record was especially alarming because of how early in the year it was set. 

‘It’s a little unnerving because September and October are historically our worst months for fires,’ Tolmachoff told AP. ‘It’s usually hot, and the fuels really dry out. And we see more of our wind events.’ 

Compared to last year, California has seen over 2,650 more fires and a nearly 2000 percent increase in the acres burned year-to-date (January 1 – September 7), across all jurisdictions, Cal Fire said. 

The state has seen 900 wildfires since August 15, many of them started by an intense series of thousands of lightning strikes in mid-August. There have been eight fire deaths and more than 4,300 structures destroyed as of Wednesday. 

Randy Moore, regional forester for the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region, warned that the blazes are expected to worsen in the coming days.  

‘The wildfire situation throughout California is dangerous and must be taken seriously,’ Moore told AP. ‘Existing fires are displaying extreme fire behavior, new fire starts are likely, weather conditions are worsening, and we simply do not have enough resources to fully fight and contain every fire.’   

Law enforcement officers watch flames into the air as the Bear Fire continues to spread in Oroville, California, on Wednesday

A Butte County firefighter douses flames at the Bear Fire in Oroville, California, early Wednesday morning

Butte County firefighters watch as flames tower over their truck at the Bear Fire in Oroville, California, on Wednesday 

An orange glow hangs over Yosemite as the Creek Fire draws near, threatening evacuations 

Oregon family runs out of gas while fleeing fast-spreading wildfires during camping trip 

An Oregon family’s camping trip took a terrifying turn when their car ran out of gas as they fled from a raging wildfire.  

Allison Hargett, her husband Tyler and their six-year-old daughter Lilly drove up to Detroit Lake State Park on Labor Day to go boating. 

Hours after they settled in for the night, the family was awoken by evacuation orders at about 1am on Tuesday as the Beachie Creek Fire encroached on their campgrounds. 

The Hargett family quickly hitched up their boat and packed up their car to drive to safety, following behind their friends, Tim and Adamma Dye.  

As they made the trek out of the evacuation zone, Allison filmed several videos from the car which showed the forest enveloped by an eerie orange glow as flames consumed dozens of trees and embers cascaded from the sky.   

The family made it about 20 miles before their car ran out of gas outside Mill City, trapping them in the Marion County evacuation zone. 

Thankfully, they weren’t alone on the road. 

‘[Our friends] were in front of us and saw that we pulled over and turned around, tossed their stuff in the back seat and told us to get in and let’s go,’ Allison told CNN on Tuesday.   

Despite being forced to leave behind their boat, car and much of their gear to fit into their friends’ vehicle, Allison said her family was grateful to have made it to safety.  

‘We completely ran out of gas and would’ve been stranded. They saved us,’ she said.  

On Tuesday night, Cal Fire said that the Creek Fire had worsened in the previous 24 hours owing to strong winds.

‘The fire continued to grow under extreme conditions,’ the agency said in an update. ‘The Red Flag Warning for strong winds will impact the fire in the early morning, with stronger winds to come. The fire made wind driven runs and increased spotting distance. 

‘Red Flag Warning in effect until 11 pm Tuesday for high temperatures, low humidity and high winds.’

The California National Guard (CNG) was called in over the weekend to rescue more than 400 hikers and campers who found themselves trapped in the mountains after roads were closed to the Creek Fire. 

More than 200 people were airlifted from Mammoth Lake over Saturday and Sunday – and another 148 were rescued from near Lake Edison and Chinese Peak early Tuesday morning, the CNG said.  

Officials said at least 65 more hikers could still be trapped in the Sierra National Forest as rescue efforts continue.    

One hiker had been confirmed dead from an apparent heart attack, and officials warned there may be multiple more casualties.   

In Southern California, fires burned in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, and the forecast called for the arrival of the region’s notorious Santa Anas. The hot, dry winds could reach 50 mph at times, forecasters said.

People in a half-dozen foothill communities east of Los Angeles were being told to stay alert because of a fire in the Angeles National Forest.

‘The combination of gusty winds, very dry air, and dry vegetation will create critical fire danger,’ the National Weather Service warned.

The US Forest Service on Monday decided to close all eight national forests in the southern half of the state and shutter campgrounds statewide.

Firefighters have made headway with one blaze in the area – the El Dorado Fire – which was sparked on Saturday by a gender reveal photoshoot, when a pyrotechnical smoke device sent sparks into the bone-dry brush.

The El Dorado Fire has burned more than 12,474 acres as of Tuesday night and is 18 percent contained. 

Officials said the family behind the gender reveal debacle could face civil or criminal charges for the fire. 

The threat of winds tearing down power lines or hurling debris into them and sparking a wildfire prompted Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest utility, to shut off power to 172,000 customers over the weekend.  

In Washington state, the town of Malden was almost entirely destroyed.

Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers said that 70-80 percent of homes in the town of 300 people have gone up in flames.

Local news network KREM showed pictured of the charred Malden post office, a fire still burning inside the gutted building.  

The fire station, city hall and other buildings were also consumed, Myers said.

‘The scale of this disaster really can’t be expressed in words,’ he said. ‘The fire will be extinguished, but a community has been changed for a lifetime. I just hope we don’t find the fire took more than homes and buildings. I pray everyone got out in time.’

Larry Frick, who lives in Malden, told KXLY that he spent three hours to save his house amid the flames.

‘It’s gone, brother,’ he texted his sibling after the fire swept through. ‘The entire town is gone. Everything from here to Pine City is gone. The scariest time of my life.’ 

KREM said that at least nine wildfires were burning throughout the Inland Northwest on Monday, amid dry and windy conditions.

Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz tweeted on Monday evening that, ‘Today alone, almost 300,000 acres in Washington have burned.’

‘Thousands of homes are without power. Many families have had to evacuate their homes and many homes have been lost,’ Franz wrote. ‘We’re still seeing new fire starts in every corner of the state.’

Governor Jay Inslee noted that more acres burned on Monday than in 12 of the last fire seasons in the state.  

‘We think all of these are human-caused in some dimension,’ Inslee said.

Allison Hargett, her husband Tyler and their six-year-old daughter Lilly had driven up to the lake on Labor Day to go boating when they were suddenly awoken by an evacuation order at about 1am Tuesday as the Beachie Creek Fire encroached on their campsite.  

The Hargett family quickly hitched up their boat and packed up their car to drive to safety, following behind their friends, Tim and Adamma Dye.  

As they made the trek out of the evacuation zone, Allison filmed several videos from the car which showed the forest enveloped by an eerie orange glow as flames consumed dozens of trees and embers cascaded from the sky.  

Allison Hargett, her husband Tyler and their six-year-old daughter Lilly (pictured together) were camping at Detroit Lake State Park when wildfire forced them to evacuate on Tuesday

The family made it about 20 miles before their car ran out of gas outside Mill City, trapping them in the Marion County evacuation zone. Thankfully, they weren’t alone on the road. 

‘[Our friends] were in front of us and saw that we pulled over and turned around, tossed their stuff in the back seat and told us to get in and let’s go,’ Allison told CNN on Tuesday.   

Despite being forced to leave behind their boat, car and much of their gear to fit into their friends’ vehicle, Allison said her family was grateful to have made it to safety.  

‘We completely ran out of gas and would’ve been stranded. They saved us,’ she said.  

The Beachie Creek Fire ignited on August 16 and has since torched more than 130,000 acres, according to local officials. It remains zero percent contained and is traveling at a rate of three acres per hour. 

High winds, dry conditions and a heatwave in the drought-stricken region helped fuel the fire over the weekend, prompting evacuations for several cities in Marion County, which includes Detroit Lake State Park.   

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office released video of multiple structures on fire in Mill City on Wednesday night, hours after the Hargett family and their friends left the area. 

Neighboring Clackamas County declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as four active fires – including Beachie Creek – put several communities under threat. 

As her family fled from the Beachie Creek Fire early Tuesday, Allison Hargett filmed several videos from the car which showed the forest enveloped by an eerie orange glow as flames consumed dozens of trees and embers cascaded from the sky

The post Three useless in California bear fireplace and two in Oregon as greater than 200 main fires proceed to burn appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Two North Bay communities reported a bear walking around neighborhoods on social media posts on the same day.

Cotati Police posted a video on their Facebook page on Monday of a bear caught on a house surveillance camera. The bear was seen casually walking down the driveway of a house in the W. Cotati Ave area around 12:30 p.m. went

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Also on May 3, Sebastopol Police Services announced in a Facebook post that a bear was discovered in the Pleasant Hill Rd., Lynch Rd. Area. and Robinson Rd., about 18 miles from W. Cotati Ave. away. Police said the image of a bear came from a camera near Hessel Road, about halfway between the two locations.

It was not known if the bear was the same in each location.

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Both police departments urged people to “show some indulgence and give him a wide berth” and not “try to get a selfie for Tik Tok!”

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The post Bear Sightings Create Buzz In Cotati, Sebastopol Neighborhoods – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.