CHINESE CAMP, Calif. — One of nearly two dozen fires burning across Northern California on Wednesday scorched homes in a Gold Rush town settled in the 1850s by thousands of Chinese miners driven out of a nearby camp.

The quick-moving fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills threatened the few remaining historic structures in Chinese Camp, forced the evacuation of its roughly 100 residents and closed a highway that’s a main route between San Francisco and Yosemite National Park.

It’s not clear yet whether any of the town’s handful of Gold Rush era structures — including an old post office and a shuttered Catholic church — were damaged in the fire that erupted Tuesday and continued burning without any containment.

A large number of lightning strikes early Tuesday set off at least 22 fires that

See Full Page