California Records Second Largest Wildfire In History, 14,000 Buildings At Risk

JAKARTA - The wildfires raging in northern California are now the second largest on record in state history, officials said Sunday, days after blazes swept through the region, forcing thousands of people to be evacuated.

The Dixie fire had grown to more than 463,000 hectares, or 724 square miles (1,876 square kilometers), as of Sunday 8 August.

State fire officials said the area burned in this disaster was larger than the city of Houston.

The Dixie fire is also the second largest fire in the state's history, after the August 2020 fires that consumed more than 1 million hectares of land.

So far, there have been no fatalities as a result of the forest fires. There were five people missing as of Saturday afternoon, according to the County Sheriff's Office. Two of them have reportedly survived, although officials are still working on confirmation at the time.

In addition, the blaze this time threatened nearly 14,000 buildings, officials said, and had destroyed more than 400, including nearly all of downtown Greenville, an old mining town about 160 miles north of Sacramento.

The cause of the forest fires in Southern California is still under investigation. Meanwhile, Pacific Gas & Electric said the cause of the fire was suspected to be a fallen tree in one of the utility's power lines.

"21 percent of the fires were brought under control. We hope to achieve control of the fire. There were favorable weather conditions, with less wind and a blanket of smoke blocking direct sunlight. This allowed for higher humidity which helped us," said Edwin Zuniga, firefighter. and a spokesperson for Cal Fire, the joint fire service fighting fires.