An explosive wildfire in northern California expanded to 1,200 acres Thursday in 24 hours, triggering multiple mandatory evacuation orders, under which over 4,000 residents fled from their homes.
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Dubbed Fawn Fire, the fire started some 19 km north of Redding city on Wednesday night, burned wildly Thursday afternoon and threatened Redding city, which has a population of 100,000, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
"I would call it extreme," Cal Fire spokesperson Robert Foxworthy said on Thursday afternoon. "There are quite a few mandatory evacuations, and they're coming out continuously. I would advise people to look at the latest information from the sheriff's department," he added.
The Fawn Fire has forced 4,000 people to evacuate and "affected" 30,000, the Shasta County Sheriff's Office said in a tweet without elaboration. Cal Fire also announced Thursday that a 30-year-old woman, Alexandra Souverneva, was arrested on fire-related charges in the area where the blaze started.
Cal Fire said that it would submit the case to the Shasta County District Attorney's Office, recommending Souverneva be charged with "arson to wildland." In California, a mandatory evacuation order means there is an immediate threat to livelihood.
Statewide, more than 9,000 firefighters remained assigned to 10 large and active wildfires, the latest data from Cal Fire showed. Wildfires in the state has burned 3,671 square miles this year, destroying over 3,200 homes, commercial properties, and other structures.
"Scientists say climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive," 4 State News recalled.