Dixie fire now No. 2 in state’s history

‘Monster’ blaze burns 404 houses and buildings so far with very little containment

In the words of a fire official, to call the Dixie fire a wildfire no longer seems to do it justice. Rather, it’s taken on the characteristics of any main character in a horror film.

“It’s a monster,” spokesman Rick Carhart of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. “And it’s gigantic.”

It’s now more gigantic than any recorded fire in the history of California, save for one. Only last year’s August Complex fire burned more acres.

The Dixie fire is not even halfway to that mark, but it no less ferocious. It grew by nearly 16,000 acres between 8:25 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday, according to Cal Fire, and has now burned 463,477 acres since it began on July 13. The blaze has rolled through the northern Sierra Nevada mountains in Butte and Plumas counties and has consumed an area larger than Los Angeles and about the same size as Maui in the Hawaiian Islands.

In doing so, it passed the July 2018 Mendocino Complex fire and became No. 2 on California’s list of wildfires.

It still has to burn approximately 569,000 more acres to match last year’s August Complex fire that tore through 1,032,648 acres in Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Tehama, Glenn Lake and Colusa counties following a series of dry lightning flurries throughout the northern part of the state.

Overall, the eight largest wildfires in California history have all burned since December 2017.

The weather forecast is not the greatest — climate scientist Daniel Swain said the weather model looks primed for a heat wave within seven to 10 days — but it was filled with hope that the recent lack of extreme weather will continue for a bit longer.

“Our hope is that with this weather not being extreme as it was, that we’ll be able to protect against it,” Carhart said.

On Sunday morning, the Dixie fire remained only 21% contained, as it was Saturday night. Three firefighters have suffered

“We have the possibility of it being a more active fire today, but not forecast to be anything like the red flag warning days last week.”

— Rick Carhart, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

injuries, and the blaze has destroyed 404 houses or buildings and 185 of what Cal Fire calls “minor structures.”

Crews estimate they won’t have the blaze fully contained until Aug. 20.

According to Cal Fire, the blaze burned at a moderate pace Saturday night and Sunday morning because of warm temperatures, low humidity and smoke inversion. Its spread had been expected

to remain relatively slow Sunday morning, with shading from smoke giving crews an opportunity to make significant progress in slowing it down.

The weather conditions have remained favorable for crews over the past couple of days, Carhart said. The

better conditions have allowed firefighters to keep more structures from burning.

Yet, the weather forecast has him nervous. The temperatures in the interiors of California are expected to climb to triple digits in some areas by Wednesday,

and winds are expected to push smoke even more to the east.

“Rise in temperature and wind will allow the sun to get on the fire and heat up those fuels even more,” Carhart said. “We have the possibility of it being a more active fire today, but not forecast to be anything like the red flag warning days last week.”

The cause of the massive blaze remains unknown, but U.S. District Judge William Alsup on Friday ordered PG&E to provide details on its potential role in igniting the Dixie and Fly fires.