Story at a glance
- The Dixie Fire, California’s second largest wildfire in history, is expected to continue growing.
- It has burned more than 500,000 acres across four counties in Northern California.
- There have already been about 6,200 wildfires in California in 2021 alone.
As the record-breaking Dixie Fire continues to burn in Northern California, more than 1,000 structures have been destroyed as just 30 percent of the fire is contained.
Another 69 structures reported damage as a result of the fire.
Cal Fire reports that the wildfire has torn through 501,008 acres and has moved through four counties, including Butte, Plumas, Lassen and Tahama.
Scores of evacuation orders have been issued for these areas as the fire continues to spread.
The #DixieFire is now the largest single fire in CA history.
Greenville in Plumas County has been completely destroyed by this fire – not dissimilar to what we saw in Paradise.
There are 8,500 firefighter personnel out here – thank you for your heroic & extraordinary work. pic.twitter.com/pavsSV69V2
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) August 8, 2021
The Dixie Fire is now the second largest wildfire to scorch California in state history, burning 26,000 acres since yesterday.
Daniel Berlant, a firefighter with Cal Fire, said the state has seen about 6,200 fires since Jan. 1 of this year, a figure up by 11 percent from the previous year.
Along with these fires, a staggering 910,000 acres have burned since the start of 2021, which represents a 233 percent increase in acres burned for this time of year compared to the same time in 2020.
More than 4.2 million acres burned in 2020, a trend Berlant hopes will not continue further into this year.
“Fire behavior overnight was moderate due to a smoke inversion that definitely helped firefighters make progress,” he added, noting crews are also occupied with 11 other wildfires concurrently burning.
Fire behavior is expected to increase as hotter temperatures are forecasted for this week. Potential thunderstorms may drift from central to northern California later this week. While rainfall is helpful, dry fuel loads make lightning strikes unwelcome as thousands of firefighters combat existing flames.
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