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A rapidly growing wildfire in northern California led to evacuation orders, the closure of a freeway and the cancellation of a cycling event as the threat of “dry lightning” triggered red flag warnings statewide.
The big picture: The Tamarack fire, south of Lake Tahoe, near the Nevada border, is one of 70 large fires that burn over more than a million acres in the United States, including nine in California. It comes as another heat wave grips the country, this time with the intensity focused on the northwest and north regions.
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What is happening: The Tamarack fire was caused by “gusty winds” and “extremely dry fuels” as it burned without containment near the town of Markleeville, according to a statement from the Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest. He razed some 21,000 acres after being set alight by lightning on July 4.
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Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for several neighboring areas, forcing Death Ride to cancel its extreme cycling event through the Sierra Nevada on Saturday, according to a statement posted on its website.
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“The blaze left thousands of bikers and spectators stranded in the small town and rushed out,” AP reports. The fire caused the closure of part of Autoroute 89, at the intersection with Autoroute 4.
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A red flag warning was also in effect for the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon, currently the largest wildfire in the United States – which reached 281,208 acres and was 22% contained on Saturday, per InciWeb.
In numbers : 17 wildfires were burning in Idaho, 13 in Montana, nine in Oregon, seven in Washington State, six in Alaska, four in Arizona, two in Wyoming and one each in Colorado, the Utah and Minnesota, according to statistics from the National Interagency Fire Center.
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