A wildfire along northern California’s inland coastal range has more than doubled in size and forced the closure of two highways, officials said on Sunday, as it roared into a fifth day.
The Rocky fire in Lake County, north of San Francisco, grew by about 20,000 acres in five hours on Saturday night, according to Cal Fire, a state website for fire information. It then ravaged another 7,000 acres on Sunday to make a total of 54,000 acres.
The fire closed parts of Highway 20 and Highway 16, destroyed 24 homes and 26 more outbuildings, and threatened an additional 6,301 structures, according to Cal Fire.
A second, smaller blaze near the Oregon border killed a firefighter.
Nearly 2,000 firefighters were battling the California fire, which broke out on Wednesday and by Sunday was only 5% contained, the same percentage as on Saturday, according to the website. About 12,000 people had been evacuated or were under evacuation advisories.
Drought-stricken brush and grasslands have made parts of California vulnerable to wildfires.
Among numerous fires burning in the state is the Frog fire, which officials said killed a firefighter on Thursday. David Ruhl, 38, a married father of two from Rapid City, South Dakota, died while assigned to the fire in the Modoc National Forest near California’s border with Oregon.
Ruhl was alone and working as incident commander on the fire, said Modoc National Forest spokesman Ken Sandusky. It is common for a leader on a fire to travel alone, Sandusky said, but he declined to release more details on the death.
The Frog fire was about 5% contained, had grown to 3,000 acres and erratic winds had pushed it in all directions, according to the US Forest Service’s InciWeb online fire information center.
No updates on the fire were posted on the Forest Service website on Sunday and officials could not be reached for comment.
A red-flag warning, designating the threat of gusty winds that risk fanning flames, was expected to remain in effect until late Sunday in the area of the Frog fire. InciWeb said the flames were not expected to be fully under control until 12 August.
On Friday, Governor Jerry Brown declared an emergency for the whole state.
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