Updated 15.12 | Published 14.53
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full screen The large wildfire is raging on both sides of Highway 36 near Payes Creek in Tehama County, California on Friday. Photo: Noah Berger/AP
A massive 967 square kilometer wildfire is spreading rapidly in California.
Thousands of homes are threatened and now the residents are fleeing.
“There’s a huge amount of fuel out there and it’s going to continue at this rapid rate,” Incident Commander Billy See of the California Fire Department told the AP.
So far, about 130 buildings have been destroyed and four counties have received evacuation orders: Butte, Plumas, Tehama and Shasta.
Compared to 2018
The fire’s spread and intensity have prompted fire officials to compare it to the state’s 2018 wildfires, which killed 85 people and burned 11,000 homes.
The state has secured federal emergency grants to ensure there are enough resources to fight the fire, according to CNN.
The fire started Wednesday after a man put a burning car down a ravine in Chico, according to authorities. The man was arrested later on Thursday.
Evacuating for the third time
Carli Parker decided to leave her home with her family when the fire started burning across the street. She has previously been forced to leave two homes due to fires
– I have little hope that my home will remain undamaged, she tells AP.
More than 110 active fires, covering 7,250 square kilometers, were burning in the United States on Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The region has been hit by extreme heat with dry conditions and an increased number of lightning strikes due to climate change.
Experts say the explosive spread is due to a “perfect storm” of warm, hot conditions and a landscape that hasn’t burned in years. It is also difficult to put out the fire that is constantly growing.
– This is the first time in years that I call the situation extraordinary – and that’s not a good thing, says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA.