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California’s largest wildfire in the midst of a scorching summer heat wave consumed more than 20,000 more acres on Sunday and destroyed around 20 homes, authorities said.
The Beckwourth Complex fire spread to Nevada, where it hopped onto a popular highway along the Sierra Nevada mountain range and forced evacuations in Washoe County.
“I know the dry conditions and the winds were a factor,” said US Forest Service spokeswoman Kimberly Kaschalk. “It’s been a challenge from day one.”
The Doyle Fire Protection District in Doyle, about 80 miles north of Reno, Nevada, said in a statement Sunday that about 20 homes had been lost to the expanding blaze.
The California Department of Transportation said Sunday afternoon that part of the 395 freeway was closed to Lassen County, California, and the sheriff’s office said the mandatory evacuation zone had been expanded.
The 83,926-acre blaze was 8 percent contained on Sunday, but federal fire officials reported progress in containing the blaze on the southern and southwestern flanks.
Forecasters were optimistic.
“Good News!”, The Reno National Weather Service tweeted Sunday. “Temperatures are finally starting to cool down in the middle or end of the week.”
Federal forecasters have said overnight lows in some Sierra Nevada valleys could dip into the 1940s by midweek.
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