California’s largest wildfire in recorded history is covering 783 square miles as of Wednesday morning, The Associated Press reported.
The Dixie fire, named for the road where it started on July 14, is currently 30 percent contained and threatening at least 14,000 remote homes, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The Northern California fire has already destroyed at least 1,045 buildings, more than half of which are homes in the Sierra Nevada, the AP reports.
“The fire outlook continues to reflect warmer and drier conditions leading to the high potential for severe wildfire activity throughout the [West] through the rest of summer and into the fall,” the National Interagency Fire Center said in a statement Sunday. “Widespread high temperatures … with periods of lightning activity continue to exacerbate the wildfire situation.”
The Dixie fire was proclaimed the largest wildfire on record at the end of last week shortly after overtaking the August 2020 Complex fire as the second-largest recorded fire. That fire blazed through more than 1 million acres and burned more than 900 structures, The Hill previously reported.
The fire destroyed the town of Greenville last week, ruining many buildings in the town that were more than a century old. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) said in a Facebook video after the Dixie fire ripped through the town that “we lost Greenville tonight.”