Growing Caldor fire leads to evacuation orders in California

A growing wildfire in northern California prompted mandatory evacuation orders on Monday for residents living in El Dorado County.

The Caldor fire was started on Saturday night in the Omo Ranch area, about 60 miles east of Sacramento, according to the El Dorado division of the US Forest Service. More than 240 firefighters were deployed to contain the blaze, which has since spread to more than 2,200 acres and was brought under zero percent control on Monday.

“Fighting the fires at night and the difficult terrain made access to the fire difficult,” the El Dorado sheriff’s office said in a statement. “The fire burned very actively all night.”

Authorities have placed evacuation orders within a 1.5 mile radius of the Caldor fire. Those directives changed from evacuation warnings to orders for residents of the Leoni Meadows and Big Mountain areas on Monday.

This year, extreme heat has helped fuel fires in the western United States, which have been exacerbated by climate change.

Growing threat from the Dixie fire, the largest blaze in the United States and the second in California history, could force more than 39,000 customers in 16 counties to lose power to avoid more forest fires, according to the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric.

Most of the closures will occur in two counties, including Butte, one of four counties where the massive Dixie Fire burned nearly 570,000 acres, the utility said. The fire was 31% under control on Monday.