San Francisco, July 27 : A massive wildfire, which has so far scorched 197,487 acres of timber and brush across two counties in California, is still threatening over 10,000 homes even after 22 per cent containment.
Dixie Fire, currently the biggest blaze raging in California, has continued growing after merging with the smaller Fly Fire, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.
It tore through the remote Northern California community of Indian Falls on Sunday, destroying at least 16 homes and other buildings there.
The 15th largest wildfire in the history of California, the second blaze in the state this year, achieved “megafire” status on July 22 when it surpassed over 100,000 acres.
Since then it almost doubled size in five days.
The Beckwourth Complex fire in Plumas National Forest garnered the designation early this month and remained at about 105,000 acres with 98 per cent contained on Monday.
More than 5,400 personnel from across California are putting out the fire around the clock, local media said, adding that more reinforces had come from Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and even Florida to join the operation.
More than 85 large wildfires are currently raging across the country, most of them in the western states.
The fires have scorched some 1,511,162 acres of land as of Monday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.(IANS)