Strong winds and lightning storms on Sunday stoked the largest fire in California this year, which is destroying houses and burning through the arid landscape of the state and driving thousands of people to flee.
According to CalFire, the McKinney Fire, which has burnt more than 51,000 acres close to the community of Yreka in northern California's Klamath National Forest, is not at all contained.
California has already been battling several fires this summer, but this one is the biggest so far this year.
After the fire started on Friday, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a state of emergency on Saturday, claiming that it had "destroyed houses" and "threatened key infrastructure."
The fire was “intensified and spread by dry fuels, extreme drought conditions, high temperatures, winds and lightning storms,” Newsom said in a statement.
More than 2,000 residents were under evacuation orders and some 200 under evacuation warnings, according to the California Office of Emergency Services (OES), mostly in Siskiyou County.
“Surrounding areas should be ready to leave if needed. Please don’t hesitate to evacuate,” the Siskiyou County Sheriff tweeted.
Highway 96 and McKinney Creed Road southwest of the Klamath River were closed to the public, CalFire said.
Yreka resident Larry Castle told the Sacramento Bee newspaper that he and his wife had packed up a few possessions and their three dogs to leave the area for the night, as other fires in recent years had taught them the situation could turn “very, very serious.”
Nearly 650 people working to douse the blaze as of Sunday, the National Wildfire Coordinating Group said.
According to the Oregon State Fire Marshall, neighbouring Oregon dispatched firefighting units to help with containment operations since the Kelsey Creek Fire is also being handled by the Klamath National Forest.
Only a few days had passed after central California experienced the year's largest fire before the record-breaking firestorm broke out.
Midway through July, the Oak Fire near Yosemite National Park started and spread quickly, causing the evacuation of hundreds of people and the destruction of 41 buildings.
California still has months of fire season ahead of it despite being in the midst of a severe drought.
Wildfires that are large and spread quickly have decimated California and other western U.S. regions in recent years due to a changing environment.