Parents, Brothers Family Evacuated in California

We just heard that my parents, and my brother Ted's family, are evacuating from their homes in Murphy's California because the Butte Fire in Calaveras County is getting too close for comfort:

BUTTE FIRE UPDATE: San Andreas ordered to evacuate

The Calaveras County Sheriff’s office just before 2:30 p.m. ordered the mandatory evacuation of San Andreas. The short announcement told residents to “leave immediately.”

Residents in most of Calaveras County east of Highway 49 are also being ordered to evacuate, the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office announced about 1 p.m.
The announcement comes as the fire continues to rage. It is already twice as large as the 1992 Old Gulch Fire and still growing.

The official acreage as of Friday afternoon was 50,000 acres burned since the fire began in Amador County on Wednesday afternoon. But the total is clearly headed much higher as the fire moves across ridges and through the Calaveras River drainage that is the heart of Calaveras County.

Communities from Mokelumne Hill to Mountain Ranch had already been evacuated when the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office issued an announcement a few minutes after noon that it is warning Arnold residents to evacuate. Just a few minutes later, fire dispatchers reported that the fire had jumped Fricot City Road south of San Andreas.

The dispatcher announced that “the fire is headed for Avery and Murphys.” Shortly after that, dispatchers and sheriff deputies began discussing the planned evacuation of Dogtown Road between Fricot City and Angels Camp.

And then, about 1 p.m, the Sheriff’s Office issued a mandatory evacuation for a huge region that includes portions of the county north of Murphys Grade Road in Angels Camp and east of Highway 49 all the way to the Fly In Acres neighborhood in Arnold.

Slideshow here

Hoping for the best.