"Jane Coolidge and her husband, Bruce, were driving past the town of Weed, Calif., on Friday when they saw a huge plume of black smoke.

Flames had engulfed a large commercial building, and debris hit their truck as it dropped onto the highway. Falling material landed in dry grass and scrub brush, starting spot fires along both sides of the road.

“It was harrowing,” Coolidge said.

The Mill fire appears to have started near the property of Roseburg Forest Products and spread to nearby homes in the historically Black community of Lincoln Heights within minutes, said Weed Mayor Kim Greene.

It quickly became an urban conflagration as flames raced from house to house, the majority of them older wooden structures, she said."

Alex Wigglesworth and Julia Wick report for the Los Angeles Times Sept. 4, 2022. [2]