The fire began at about 11 20 a.m. today and rapidly spread through parched brush and timber.
As the two men searched heavy brush and timber for the wounded 400-pound bear, it charged them.
About 50 other homes were threatened by the blaze, which began Thursday near the bottom of the gorge and raced uphill through rugged terrain of brush and timber.
The wildfire was threatening 4,500 structures as flames consumed brush and timber in an area larger than the city of Chicago, state fire officials said.
He is equally at home over timber, brush, or hurdles.
Gene White, one of two New Jersey firefighters sent to California to battle the wildfires, said, "There's brush, there's timber, there's the same of everything, although the species are very different".
Davies described the battle: Many were killed and wounded in the Brigade in crossing a ridge to the position and some owing to their eagerness to look over the hill on the columns struggling through the brush and falling timber and their withered branches toward the work … many of the Regt.
Until the interview this week, he had brushed aside the timber theft case as a threat that might simmer forever but that would never go to court.
Belts of timber and brush along the rivers are home for white-tailed deer, elk, and bears.
Instead, experienced local people, using horses to assist in the heavy work, could start the process of clearing away downed timber and brush.
