Nat´l Park in California closed as massive wildfire grows

Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California was forced to close on Thursday as a massive wildfire continued to explode in size in the region, reported Xinhua.

The fast-moving fire, dubbed Dixie Fire, is active in the remote eastern side of Lassen Volcanic National Park, said park officials in a news release, noting that an emergency closure is in place for the entire park.

The Dixie Fire was at 322,502 acres (around 130,511 hectares) and 35 percent contained as of Thursday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

"The temporary closure ensures firefighters have unimpeded access to all areas of the park," said Jim Richardson, superintendent of the park, in the news release.

"The park's current priorities are to ensure the immediate evacuation of visitors and to protect facilities along the park highway and in the Manzanita Lake and Mineral Headquarters areas," he added.

The fire, which started on July 13, has burned through multiple counties in Northern California. It's the largest wildfire so far this year in California and has become the sixth largest wildfire in the history of the state after growing over 50,000 acres (20,234 hectares) overnight.

Greenville, a small mountain town in the region, was devastated by the massive wildfire on Wednesday night. The town, home to around 1,000 residents, is around 230 km northeast of the state capital, Sacramento.

Authorities in multiple Northern California counties on Thursday issued new mandatory evacuations and new warnings, urging residents in some communities near the fire zones to evacuate immediately.

Officials said over 12,400 structures were threatened by the fire and around 4,800 fire personnel were battling the blaze.

Extreme fire behavior with long-range spotting, crown fire, and group torching is anticipated, according to InciWeb, an interagency all-risk incident web information management system provided by the U.S. Forest Service.

"Last night firefighters, including aerial resources, aggressively attacked large flame fronts in an effort to defend structures. As fire entered the Greenville area, firefighting efforts shifted to assist law enforcement in evacuation efforts," said officials in an incident overview released on InciWeb, adding that initial reports indicate firefighting activities had saved about 25 percent of structures in the Greenville community.

Over 6,000 wildfires have burned more than an estimated 579,600 acres (around 234,555 hectares) and damaged or destroyed at least 400 structures in California so far this year, according to the Cal Fire's 2021 Incident Archive. The state and most of the U.S. West are in the grip of a severe drought of historic proportions.

Nationally, 100 large fires have burned 1,947,811 acres (around 788,251 hectares) in 14 states, the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center said Thursday, noting that several large fires in California have showed themselves to be extreme.