The Caldor fire has continued to grow in northern California as rescue crews struggle to contain it, The Associated Press reported.
The fire has covered 154 square kilometers of land in the northern Sierra Nevada region since last week and officials said there was no containment of the flame on Sunday.
This summer’s wildfires have burned up to 700 homes and left 13,000 residents threatened in neighboring communities, according to the AP.
Local rescue teams and firefighters had hoped that cooler temperatures and calm weather could help them fight the blaze, but the winds blew up embers and created new hotspots, according to the AP.
“We know this fire has done things that no one could have predicted, but so has the firefighting in the state this year,” said Jeff Marsolais, chief of Eldorado’s national forest supervisor.
Second, there are 94 active forest fires in the country the National Interagency Fire Department.
Evacuation orders have been placed in Kern County due to the risk of forest fires in rural communities, the PA reported.
Nine national forests have been closed due to the threat of forest fires, the AP noted.