A fire raging out of control in northern California has rapidly become among the biggest ever in the western US state, authorities have said.
The so-called Park Fire burned more than 142,000 hectares as of yesterday evening, making it the seventh largest ever recorded in California history, the state agency Cal Fire said.
The fire, which prompted orders for more than 4,000 people to flee their homes, was burning through a largely rural, mountainous area near the city of Chico, about 145 kilometres north of state capital Sacramento.
"Extreme fire conditions continue to challenge firefighters," Cal Fire said in a post on X.
The fire was just 10% controlled, despite the efforts of more than 3,700 personnel with over a dozen helicopters and several planes, according to an agency update.
"Numerous firefighting air tankers from throughout the state are flying fire suppression missions as conditions allow," it said.
"Lower temperatures and higher humidity have reduced fire activity," the agency said, while adding that fire was still spreading.
The Park Fire started Wednesday near Chico, in Butte County, and within hours had devastated a wide area there and in neighbouring Tehama County.
Cal Fire's latest update said 20 structures were confirmed destroyed by the fire, lowering an earlier estimate of 134.
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The agency said the numbers were expected to fluctuate as officials assess the damage on the ground.
The blaze has generated an enormous column of dense grey smoke which has also been blown over nearby states.
Experts say climate change, accelerated by human action, is leading to more extreme weather events.
US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the fire and has directed his team to do everything possible to support efforts to fight it, a White House official said.
A man was arrested on Thursday on suspicion that he started the Park Fire by pushing a flaming car into a gully on Wednesday afternoon.
The fire is the largest of dozens of active blazes across the country that have burned more than two million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Centre.
In Oregon, several fires were burning, including the Durkee Fire, which had scorched more than 288,000 acres in the eastern part of the state, authorities said.
A firefighter died after a single-engine tanker crashed near the Falls Fire in southeastern Oregon, the US Forest Service said in a statement on Friday.
