California wildfire spreads fast, growing to largest this year in U.S.
A fast-moving wildfire in the western U.S. state of California had grown to the largest one so far this year in the country on Friday.
The massive fire, dubbed Dixie Fire, had burned 434,813 acres (around 175,963 hectares) and was only 21 percent contai-ned as of Friday night, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
Official data showed that the area scorched by the fire grew by around 100,000 acres (around 40,469 hectares) in 24 hours from Thursday morning to Friday morning.
The fire, which started on July 13, was also the third largest wildfire in California's history, only behind 2020's August Complex Fire and 2018's Mendocino Complex Fire. It was only the 11th largest wildfire in the history of California on Tuesday and exploded to be-come the sixth largest in the state's history on Thursday.
The previous largest wildfire in the United States this year was the Bootleg Fire, which was partially contained and still burning in the state of Oregon, and remained at 413,765 acres (around 167,445 hectares) as of Friday.
In Dixie Fire's west zone, the blaze "remained very active overnight with warm tempera-tures, poor relative humidity recoveries, and strong overnight winds fueling fire beha-vior," said the Cal Fire in an update on Friday.
In the east zone, the fast-moving fire was expected to remain active and dynamic overnight, added the agency.
No casualties had been re-ported so far due to the Dixie Fire. But the fire, burning through multiple counties in Nor-thern California, had destroyed at least 184 structures and forced thousands of local residents to evacuate. Around 5,200 firefighters were working to contain it.
According to Cal Fire, five of the top seven largest wildfires in the state's history, including the Dixie Fire, have occurred since 2020.
A total of 107 large fires had burned 2,083,667 acres (around 843,230 hectares) across the United States, the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center said Friday.
Xinhua