Entire neighborhoods near California’s wine country have been completely singed by the wildfires that raged for several days, but exhausted firefighters stumbled upon a symbol of hope over the weekend: an untouched American flag that somehow persisted through the blaze.
Members of the Merced Fire Department came across the flag over the weekend as they cleared rubble from a scorched home.
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Video posted to Twitter by KABC reporter Veronica Miracle shows the firefighters hoisting the flag up near an outdoor barbecue area. All of the leaves on the nearby trees have been burned off, but the flag stands tall, waving in the harsh breeze that helped the fire spread so quickly.
A symbol of HOPE at the #NorthBayFires. @MercedFireDept found an untouched #AmericanFlag among the rubble. @ABC7 @ABC30 @abc7newsbayarea pic.twitter.com/mim7bT5SMK
— Veronica Miracle (@ABC7Veronica) October 15, 2017
The death toll from the fire continued to rise over the weekend. At least 41 people had been killed as of Monday and dozens more unaccounted for, ABC News reported.
Crews have been working shifts from 30 to 48 hours to battle the wildfires, according to the Merced Fire Department.
On Tuesday, new fires in the Golden State were breaking out as firefighters contained more of the fires near Napa, The Associated Press reported.
The fires sprang up in the Santa Cruz mountains, in the southern region of the Bay Area, according to The AP.
(H/T: ABC News)