The next insurance commissioner will oversee the largest insurance market in the country, with authority over property, auto, health, life, pet, ride-hailing and workers’ compensation insurance. But in recent years, the office has been defined largely by one urgent issue: the growing difficulty of securing affordable home and fire insurance as wildfire risk intensifies.

For many residents in fire-prone parts of Southern California and the Inland Empire, the question is not abstract. Homeowners have faced nonrenewals, limited options and steep premium increases, while others have been pushed toward the FAIR Plan, California’s insurer of last resort for fire coverage.

The next commissioner will inherit a difficult balancing act: keeping insurers in the California market while protecting consumers from unaffordable rates. Several insurance companies that previously stopped writing new policies or renewing existing ones have begun using new state regulations that allow different tools in setting rates. Those changes are expected to contribute to higher premiums as the Department of Insurance continues reviewing and approving rate increases.

The office also will have to address the fallout from last year’s Los Angeles County fires, where delays and denials in insurance claims have slowed recovery and rebuilding for many property owners. State Farm, California’s largest individual insurer, and the FAIR Plan are both facing lawsuits from homeowners and legal action by the Department of Insurance over their handling of claims connected to those fires.

The leading Democratic candidates include state Sen. Ben Allen, who is leaving the Legislature because of term limits; Jane Kim, chair of the California Working Families Party and a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; Patrick Wolff, a financial analyst who has not held public office; and Steven Bradford, a former state senator and assemblymember.

On the Republican side, the leading candidates are Stacy Korsgaden, a longtime insurance agent, and Merritt Farren, an attorney who lost his home in last year’s Palisades fire. Neither has held statewide public office.

The candidates have generally identified similar problems in California’s insurance system, but their proposed solutions differ. Kim has called for creating a state authority for wildfires and floods funded by a portion of policyholders’ premiums. Farren has proposed a state reinsurance authority funded through a fee charged by insurers to policyholders, an idea that both Kim and Allen have also shown interest in. Bradford has said he would examine a public-private partnership aimed at keeping insurance companies active in California.

Consumer advocates and former insurance commissioners have described the job as a demanding role that requires weighing the needs of homeowners, landlords, renters and businesses while also ensuring insurers believe they can charge rates that reflect the state’s wildfire risk.

U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, a Democrat whose district includes much of Contra Costa and Solano counties, served as California’s first insurance commissioner and later returned to the office for a second stint. He has described the position as complex and difficult work requiring close attention to detail.

Original source: CalMatters

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Northwest of Los Angeles, the Mountain Fire exploded in size and prompted evacuation orders for more than 10,000 people as it threatened 3,500 structures in suburban communities, ranches and agricultural areas around Camarillo, according to a statement from Gov. Gavin Newsom. He said he has requested federal assistance for the area east of the Pacific coast city of Ventura.

The blaze was burning in a region that has seen some of California’s most destructive fires over the years. A thick plume of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the sky Wednesday, blanketing whole neighborhoods and limiting visibility for firefighters and evacuees. The fire grew from less than half of a square mile to 16 square miles (62 square kilometers) in little more than five hours.

Ventura County Fire Captain Trevor Johnson described crews racing with their engines to homes threatened by the flames to save lives.

“This is as intense as it gets. The hair on the back of the firefighters’ neck I’m sure was standing up,” he said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Two people suffered apparent smoke inhalation and were taken to hospitals, fire officials said. No firefighters reported significant injuries.

The erratic winds and limited visibility grounded fixed-wing aircraft, and gusts topped 61 mph (98 kph), said weather service meteorologist Bryan Lewis. Water-dropping helicopters were still flying.

First responders pleaded with residents to evacuate. Deputies made contact with 14,000 people to urge them to leave as embers spread up to 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away and sparked new flames.

“This fire is moving dangerously fast,” Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said.

Aerial footage from local television networks showed dozens of homes in flames across several neighborhoods as embers were whipped from home to home. Other footage captured horses trotting alongside evacuating vehicles.

Jade Katz, who said she is disabled and does not drive, waited for a friend to pick her up near her Camarillo Heights home with a suitcase full of medication and Bella, her Great Dane service dog. But the friend couldn’t reach her, so first responders sent a squad car to escort her to safety as she watched the neighborhood burn.

Officials said they were using all resources, including water-dropping helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dropping fire retardant, but it was still burning out of control Wednesday afternoon. Andrew Dowd, a Ventura County fire spokesperson, said he did not have details of how many structures had been damaged.

Gus Garcia, who owns a ranch south of the fire, said he’s waiting to see whether conditions will change to decide if he should evacuate his horses and cattle. Around 12:30 p.m., his animals were still safe and he was trying to stay out of the way as others got their livestock out.

His ranch is surrounded by others with horses and alpaca, and Garcia said his neighbors in the canyon did not seem panicked.

“The horse community, they prepare for this because it’s always a possibility up here,” he said.

Meanwhile to the south, Los Angeles County Fire Department crews scrambled to contain a wildfire near Malibu’s Broad Beach as authorities briefly shut down the Pacific Coast Highway as flames burned near multimillion-dollar properties. Residents were urged to shelter in place while aircraft dropped water on the 50-acre (20-hectare) Broad Fire. It was 15% contained around 12:30 p.m. with forward progress stopped. Fire officials said two structures burned.

The National Weather Service office for the Los Angeles area amended its red flag warning for increased fire danger with a rare “particularly dangerous situation” label, and officials in several counties urged residents to be on watch for fast-spreading blazes, power outages and downed trees amid the latest round of notorious Santa Ana winds.

With predicted gusts between 50 mph (80 kph) and 100 mph (160 kph) and humidity levels as low as 8%, parts of Southern California could experience conditions ripe for “extreme and life-threatening” fire behavior into Thursday, the weather service said.

Forecasters also issued red flag warnings until Thursday from California’s central coast through the San Francisco Bay Area and into counties to the north, where strong winds were also expected.

Utilities in California began powering down equipment during high winds and extreme fire danger after a series of massive and deadly wildfires in recent years were sparked by electrical lines and other infrastructure. On Wednesday, more than 65,000 customers in Southern California were without power preventatively, and upwards of 20,000 in Northern California.

Wednesday’s fires were burning in the same areas of other recent destructive fires, including the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which killed three people and destroyed 1,600 homes near Los Angeles, and the the 2017 Thomas Fire, which destroyed more than a thousand homes and other structures in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Southern California Edison has paid tens of millions of dollars to settle claims after its equipment was blamed for both blazes.

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Following a surge in the Line Fire on September 29, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department told Seven Oaks residents to leave the small mountain community.

Angelus Oaks residents were also asked to evacuate, while those living in the Boulder Bay area along Big Bear Lake were told to be ready to move out.

The San Bernardino National Forest said on September 29, the Line Fire had spread over 62.6 square miles and was 83 percent contained, with 1,176 personnel assigned to fight the blaze. The blaze threatened more than 65,000 homes.

A California man, Justin Wayne Halstenberg, 34, of Norco, pleaded not guilty on September 17 to starting the Line Fire on September 5. According to court records, he was charged with 11 arson-related crimes.

Temperatures are expected to rise this week across California. Dry, hot winds in the northern part of the state prompted Pacific Gas & Electric to preemptively cut power to about 1,200 customers in Butte and Shasta counties. The utility routinely cuts electricity service in areas where weather conditions increase the risk of fires.

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The Airport Fire Local Assistance Center will be open from noon to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Lake Community Center, located at 310 W. Graham Ave.

The Riverside County Department of Public Social Services, Public Health, Housing & Workforce Solutions and other local agencies will be joined by representatives from the California Office of Emergency Services and several nonprofit organizations to provide information on how to procure financial, medical and related aid.

“This is an incredibly difficult time for our residents, and the LAC is here to bring them one step closer to recovery,” according to a Riverside County Emergency Management Department statement.

Additional details are available at RivCoReady.org/recovery.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved an emergency declaration connected to the wildfire, enabling the county to seek state and federal allocations for infrastructure repairs or improvements and general recovery of expenses stemming from the blaze.

As of Wednesday, the fire was about one-third contained, and no mandatory evacuations were active for Lakeland Village, the Trilogy community and surrounding locations along Interstate 15, as was the case a week ago. The area, however, remained under an evacuation warning.

A few communities within the Cleveland National Forest in Riverside County, mostly around the closed Ortega (74) Highway, are still under evacuation orders, though a larger number are in Orange County.

“The county has implemented emergency protective measures to the public by controlling traffic, prohibiting ingress and egress into affected areas due to conditions considered dangerous to lives and property,” according to the EMD.

The Orange County Fire Authority said 14 people have been hurt, mostly firefighters who suffered minor injuries fighting the blaze, many of them heat-related.

Cal Fire said 160 residential, commercial and other structures have been destroyed, and another 34 damaged.

The Airport Fire began early on the afternoon of Sept. 9 near Trabuco Canyon Road in the area of the remote-controlled airplane airport, OCFA Capt. Sean Doran said.

Officials said the fire was sparked by a county public works crew using heavy equipment. The cause was deemed accidental.

It’s estimated the fire will be fully contained by lines of cleared vegetation in one week.

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MORENO VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters working in high heat patrolled for hotspots and built control lines around a large wildfire smoldering in the interior of Southern California on Tuesday.

The Rabbit Fire remained at just under 13 square miles (33.6 square kilometers), with 45% containment after minimal activity overnight, according to the Riverside County unit of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The fire was the largest of four that erupted last week in Riverside County. The last of evacuation orders for nearby homes was downgraded to a warning on Tuesday and all other warnings were lifted.

The three smaller fires were all at significant levels of containment and all evacuation orders, warnings and road closures were lifted.

“Hot and dry, steep and rugged terrain are still going to be the challenges for the firefighters, but they continue to work aggressively on these fires to help the containment,” Rabbit Fire incident commander Josh Janssen said in a video briefing.

Much of inland Southern California, broiling along with Arizona and other states, will remain under excessive heat warnings into the weekend.

In the Sierra Nevada, a fire ignited by lightning late last month in Yosemite National Park was 20% contained after scorching slightly more than 1 square mile (3 square kilometers).

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BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration said Tuesday it will significantly expand efforts to stave off catastrophic wildfires that have torched areas of the U.S. West by more aggressively thinning forests around “hot spots” where nature and neighborhoods collide.

As climate change heats up and dries out the West, administration officials said they have crafted a $50 billion plan to more than double the use of controlled fires and logging to reduce trees and other vegetation that serves as tinder in the most at-risk areas. Only some of the work has funding so far.

Projects will begin this year, and the plan will focus on regions where out-of-control blazes have wiped out neighborhoods and sometimes entire communities — including California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, the east side of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, and portions of Arizona, Oregon and Washington state. Homes keep getting built in fire-prone areas, even as conditions that stoke blazes get worse.

“You’re going to have forest fires. The question is how catastrophic do those fires have to be,” Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack told the Associated Press in an interview. “The time to act is now if we want to ultimately over time change the trajectory of these fires.”

Specific projects weren’t immediately released, and it’s not clear who would pay for the full scope of work envisioned across almost 80,000 square miles (200,000 square kilometers) — an area almost as large as Idaho. Much of that area is controlled by states, tribes or is privately owned.

Reaching that goal would require an estimated $20 billion over 10 years for work on national forests and $30 billion for work on other federal, state, tribal and private lands, said Vilsack spokesperson Kate Waters.

Vilsack acknowledged that the new effort will also require a “paradigm shift” within the U.S. Forest Service, from an agency devoted to stamping out fires, into one that uses what some Native Americans call “good fire” on forests and rangeland to prevent even larger blazes.

Forest Service planning documents indicate the work will focus on “hotspots” that make up only 10% of the fire-prone areas across the U.S. but account for 80% of risk to communities because of their population densities and locations.

The recently-passed federal infrastructure bill put a down payment on the initiative — about $3 billion over five years that Vilsack said will get work going quickly.

Wildfire expert John Abatzoglou said lessening fire dangers on the amount of land envisioned under the administration’s plan is a “lofty goal” that represents even more acreage than burned over the past 10 years across the West. But Abatzoglou, a University of California Merced engineering professor, said the focus on wildfire hazards closest to communities makes sense.

“Our scorecard for fire should be about lives saved rather than acres that didn’t burn,” he said.

Vilsack joined Forest Service Chief Randy Moore to announce the plan during an event in Phoenix where he defended its scope as realistic.

“We know from a scientific standpoint precisely where this action has to take place in many of these forests in order to protect communities, in order to protect people,” Vilsack said following the announcement at the Desert Botanical Garden, a popular showcase for cactuses, desert trees and other dry-weather plants.

Dealing with western wildfires is becoming increasingly urgent as they get more destructive and intense. There have been rare winter blazes in recent weeks, including infernos in Montana and Colorado, where a wildfire on Dec. 30 tore through a suburban area and destroyed more than 1,000 buildings, leaving one person dead and a second still missing.

And there’s no signs of a let-up in conditions that keep the risk of wildfires extremely high. A long-term “megadrought” is gripping the region and scientists forecast temperatures will keep rising as more climate-changing carbon emissions are pumped into the atmosphere.

The impact stretches far beyond the western U.S. because massive smoke plumes at the height of wildfire season in the U.S. and Canada spread the health effects across North America — sending unhealthy pollution last summer to major cities from San Francisco to Philadelphia and Toronto.

For decades the primary approach to containing and extinguishing forest fires was to try to stamp them out. The efforts have been similar to massive, military-like campaigns, including planes, fleets of heavy equipment and thousands of firefighting personnel and support workers dispatched to the fire zones.

However, fires are a part of the natural cycle for most forests, so putting them out leaves stands of trees that don’t burn surrounded by dead wood, underbrush and other highly flammable fuels — a worst-case scenario when blazes ignite.

Critics say the government’s plan to use logging to reduce fire damages will hurt both forests and the wildlife and water supplies that depend on them. In South Dakota’s Black Hills, for example, government biologists have said that too many trees dying from a combination of insects, fire and logging have made current timber harvest levels unsustainable.

“The U.S. Forest Service simply cannot log its way out of the climate crisis,” said Adam Rissien with the environmental group WildEarth Guardians.

But Vilsack said a combination of tree thinning and intentionally set fires to clear undergrowth that are called prescribed burns will make the forests healthier in the long run while reducing the threat to public safety.

Forests thinned near Lake Tahoe and its tourism gateway community of South Lake Tahoe were credited with slowing the advance of the massive Caldor Fire last summer that destroyed almost 800 homes and prompted evacuations of tens of thousands of residents and tourists.

A similar phenomenon played out during Oregon’s Bootleg fire last July, which burned more than 600 square miles (1,500 square kilometers) but did less damage in forest that was thinned over the past decade.

“We know this works,” Vilsack said. “It’s removing some of the timber, in a very scientific and thoughtful way, so that at the end of the day fires don’t continue to hop from tree top to tree top, but eventually come to ground where we can put them out.”

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SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of people who fled South Lake Tahoe under threat of a wildfire were allowed to return as crews stalled the flames from advancing, but many shops remained dark Monday and the resort town’s normally bustling streets remained quiet.

A week ago, the scenic tourist town on the California-Nevada state line emptied out when authorities issued an evacuation order as the fire approached from south. Now, traffic is trickling back but nothing like the crowds that typically pour in over the summer to enjoy Lake Tahoe’s crystalline waters, which are covered by a smoky haze.

Lake Tahoe Community College student Dakota Jones returned Monday to South Lake Tahoe after being evacuated to Carson City, Nevada. He said he worried he’d find buildings damaged or covered in ash and was pleasantly surprised to find the city of 22,000 people largely untouched when he and his roommates, who were in the process of moving when the fire approached, drove a U-Haul full of their belongings back to their old apartment.

“I was honestly convinced this place was gonna go down,” Jones said. “It was nice to see that I was wrong.”

Evacuation orders for South Lake Tahoe and other lakeside areas were downgraded to warnings Sunday afternoon and California Highway Patrol officers began removing roadblocks along State Highway 50 from Nevada to the city limits. Authorities warned that residents of the scenic forest area weren’t out of the woods yet, with risks ranging from smoky, foul air to belligerent bears.

The threat from the Caldor Fire hasn’t entirely vanished but downgrading to a warning meant those who wish could return to their homes in what had been a smoke-choked ghost town instead of a thriving Labor Day getaway location. South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Clive Savacool said officials hoped to have the hospital emergency room open within 24 hours but people with health problems might want to consider staying away due to the air quality.

Authorities also warned that in the absence of humans, bears had gone to town, spreading trash everywhere that must be picked up.

“The delicate balance between humans and bears has been upset,” and anyone who thinks a bear may have entered their home should call law enforcement, El Dorado County sheriff’s Sgt. Simon Brown said.

Mandatory evacuation orders remained in place for parts of unincorporated El Dorado County south of South Lake Tahoe, including Meyers and Christmas Valley.

The lifting of mandatory evacuation orders for the Tahoe area marked a milestone in the fight against the fire, which erupted on Aug. 14 and spread across nearly 340 square miles (880 square kilometers) of dense national parks and forests, tree-dotted granite cliffs and scattered cabins and hamlets in the northern Sierra Nevada.

At its peak, the fire burned as much as 1,000 acres an hour and last month virtually razed the small community of Grizzly Flats.

But in recent days the winds eased and thousands of firefighters took advantage of the better weather to hack, burn and bulldoze fire lines, managing to contain 44% of the perimeter by Monday.

Most of the western and southern sides of the fire were corralled, although some areas still were off-limits.

No homes were lost on the northeastern side of the fire nearest to the lake, and crews managed to carve more fire line along one edge of a fiery finger.

Authorities noted the progress but said single-digit humidity on Monday and slightly more wind could spur spot fires up to half a mile (0.8 kilometers) away. They urged firefighters to stay alert.

“We are drier than I have seen on my 20 days on this fire,” said Jim Dudley, incident meteorologist. “There’s a lot of potential weather-wise for little things to become maybe not so little.”

California and much of the U.S. West have seen dozens of wildfires in the past two months as the drought-stricken region sweltered under hot, dry weather and winds drove flames through bone-dry vegetation.

In California, more than 14,500 firefighters were battling 14 active fires. Since the year began, more than 7,000 wildfires have devoured 3,000 square miles (nearly 8,000 square kilometers), Cal Fire said.

On Sunday, a new fire broke out in Placer County, burning half a square mile (1.2 square kilometers) and prompting evacuation orders and warnings and road closures.

The fires have been concentrated in Northern California, where the weather is expected to cool slightly and the humidity to rise starting Tuesday.

No deaths have been reported specifically from the fires.

Fire concerns have shut down all national forests in the state.

California has experienced increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires in recent years as climate change has made the West much warmer and drier over the past 30 years. Scientists have said weather will continue to be more extreme and wildfires more frequent, destructive and unpredictable.

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SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — A California fire that gutted hundreds of homes advanced toward Lake Tahoe on Wednesday as thousands of firefighters tried to box in the flames and tourists who hoped to boat or swim were enveloped in a thick yellow haze of the nation’s worst air.

The Caldor Fire spread to within 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of the lake that straddles the California-Nevada state line, eating its way through rugged timberlands and “knocking on the door” of the Lake Tahoe basin, California’s state fire chief Thom Porter warned this week.

Ash rained down on Tuesday and tourists ducked into cafes, outdoor gear shops and casinos on Lake Tahoe Boulevard for a respite from the unhealthy air.

South Lake Tahoe and Tahoe City on the west shore had the nation’s worst air pollution at midmorning Wednesday, reaching 334, in the “hazardous” category of the 0-500 Air Quality Index, according to AirNow, a partnership of federal, state and local air agencies.

Inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, cocktail waitresses in fishnet stockings and leopard-print corsets served customers playing slots and blackjack.

Sitting at a slot machine near a window looking out at cars driving through the haze, Ramona Trejo said she and her husband would stay for their 50th wedding anniversary, as planned.

Trejo, who uses supplemental oxygen due to respiratory problems, said her husband wanted to keep gambling.

“I would want to go now,” she said.

South of Tahoe, Rick Nelson and his wife, Diane, had planned to host a weekend wedding at Fallen Leaf Lake, where his daughter and her fiance had met. However, the smoke caused most of the community to leave. The sun was an eerie blood orange and the floats and boats in the lake were obscured by haze.

In the end, the Nelsons spent two days arranging to have the wedding moved from the glacial lake several hours southwest to the San Francisco Bay Area.

“Everybody’s trying to make accommodations for the smoke. And I think it’s becoming a reality for us, unfortunately,” Diane Nelson said. “I just think that the smoke and the fires have gotten bigger, hotter and faster-moving.”

Climate change has made the West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

Although there were no evacuations ordered for Lake Tahoe, it was impossible to ignore a blanket of haze so thick and vast that it closed schools for two days in Reno, Nevada, which is about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the fire.

The school district that includes Reno reopened most schools on Wednesday, citing improved air quality conditions. However, the Washoe County School District’s schools in Incline Village on the north shore of Lake Tahoe remained closed, the district said in a statement.

The last major blaze in the area, during the summer of 2007, took South Lake Tahoe by surprise after blowing up from an illegal campfire. The Angora Fire burned less than 5 square miles (13 square kilometers) but destroyed 254 homes, injured three people and forced 2,000 people to flee.

The Caldor fire has scorched more than 197 square miles (510 square kilometers) and destroyed at least 461 homes since Aug. 14 in the Sierra Nevada southwest of the lake. It was 11% contained and threatened more than 17,000 structures.

The western side of the blaze continued to threaten more than a dozen small communities and wineries. On the fire’s eastern side, crews bulldozed fire lines, opened up narrow logging roads and cleared ridgetops in hopes of stopping its advance, fire officials said.

More than 2,500 firefighters were on the line and more resources were streaming in, including big firefighting aircraft, fire officials said.

“It’s the No. 1 fire in the country right now … there’s dozens of crews and dozers and engines and others that are on their way right now,” said Jeff Marsolais, supervisor for the Eldorado National Forest and an administrator on the fire.

The resources were desperately needed.

“This fire has just simply outpaced us. We emptied the cupboards of resources,” Marsolais said, adding that while the blaze had slowed its explosive growth in recent days, “that can change.”

Meanwhile, California’s Dixie Fire, the second-largest in state history at 1,148 square miles (2,973 square kilometers), was burning only about 65 miles (104 kilometers) to the north. It was 43% contained. At least 682 homes were among more than 1,270 buildings that have been destroyed.

In the southern Sierra Nevada, there was growing concern as the French Fire expanded near Lake Isabella, a popular fishing and boating destination. About 10 communities were under evacuation orders. The fire has blackened 32 square miles (83 square kilometers) since Aug. 18.

Nationally, 92 large fires were burning in a dozen mainly Western states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

Northern California has experienced a series of disastrous blazes that have burned hundreds of homes and many remain uncontained.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden declared that a major disaster exists in California and ordered federal aid made available to local governments, agencies and fire victims in four northern counties ravaged by blazes dating back to July 14.

___

Melley and AP reporter John Antczak reported from Los Angeles.

Sam Metz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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GRIZZLY FLATS, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters faced dangerously windy weather Tuesday as they struggled to keep the nation’s largest wildfire from advancing toward a Northern California city while a portrait of devastation emerged in a small mountain community hit by another inferno.

Winds spawned by the arrival of a new weather system Monday afternoon pushed the monstrous Dixie Fire to within about 8 miles (12.8 kilometers) of Susanville, population about 18,000, while to the southeast a small blaze called the Caldor Fire exploded through through Grizzly Flats, a town of about 1,200.

Very few homes were left standing in Grizzly Flats, where streets were littered with downed power lines and poles. Houses were reduced to smoldering ash and twisted metal with only chimneys rising above the ruins. A post office and elementary school were also destroyed.

Two people with serious or severe injuries were airlifted to hospitals from the Grizzly Flats area, fire officials said.

At the Dixie Fire, numerous resources were put into the Susanville area, where residents were warned to be ready to evacuate, said Mark Brunton, an operations section chief.

“It’s not out of play, and the next 24 hours are going to be crucial to watch as to what the fire is going to do there,” he told an online briefing.

To the east, spot fires became established south of the small community of Janesville, which had been ordered evacuated. Some structures were lost there — images captured by The Associated Press showed a home consumed by flames — but a surge of firefighters was able to herd the fire around the majority of the town, Brunton said.

The Dixie Fire is the largest of nearly 100 major wildfires burning across more than a dozen Western states that have seen historic drought and weeks of high temperatures and dry weather that have left trees, brush and grasslands as flammable as tinder. Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

Susanville is the seat of Lassen County and the largest city that the Dixie Fire, named for the road where it started, has approached since it broke out last month. The former Sierra Nevada logging and mining town has two state prisons, a nearby federal lockup and a casino.

Ash fell from the advancing fire, and a police statement urged residents “to be alert and be ready to evacuate” if the fire threatens the city.

The weather forecast prompted Pacific Gas & Electric to warn that it might cut off power to 48,000 customers in parts of 18 California counties Tuesday evening through Wednesday to prevent new fires that could be sparked by wind damage to power lines.

The Dixie Fire has scorched more than 940 square miles (2,434 square kilometers) in the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades since it ignited on July 13 and eventually merged with a smaller blaze. It’s less than a third contained.

Investigations are continuing, but PG&E has notified utility regulators that the Dixie and Fly fires may have been caused by trees falling into its power lines. The Dixie Fire began near the town of Paradise, which was devastated by a 2018 wildfire ignited by PG&E equipment during strong winds. Eighty-five people died.

Ongoing damage surveys have counted more than 1,100 buildings destroyed, including 630 homes, and more than 16,000 structures remained threatened. Numerous evacuation orders were in effect.

The Caldor Fire started Saturday in El Dorado County and remained small until winds fueled its growth to about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers).

About 2,500 people were under evacuation orders and warnings, said Chris Vestal, a fire spokesman. Only a handful of firefighters remained in the town Tuesday, extinguishing residual fires.

Authorities confirmed structures were destroyed and damaged in Grizzly Flats and two other area communities, but Vestal said he could not say how many were affected as it was not safe for inspectors.

“They’re worried about trying to put out the fire or save homes,” he said. He said one person was injured in the fire. He did not provide additional details.

Tami Christner, 36, said she and her family left their Grizzly Flats home late Monday when they got the notice to evacuate. She and her husband started packing earlier in the day and got their three children, 20 chickens, three ducks, two cats, two hamsters, a dog and a rabbit out. One cat, Minion, was lost and didn’t make it out with them, she said.

“I am not 100% sure if my house is gone, but it might be,” she said.

People throughout the region were offering assistance to evacuees, including the four-footed kind. Susan Collins of Placerville used her horse trailer to help move two horses Tuesday after offering help on an El Dorado County Facebook page.

“I know not everybody is prepared when something like this happens, and my purpose in life is to be there to help people,” she said.

Across the state line in Nevada, school administrators delayed start times in the Reno-Sparks because of a cloak of wildfire smoke from the Dixie Fire blanketing the region. Smoke plumes from the Caldor Fire were also visible from northern Nevada.

Two dozen fires were burning in Montana and nearly 50 more in Idaho, Washington and Oregon, according to the National Fire Interagency Center.

In Montana, authorities ordered evacuations on Tuesday for several remote communities in north- central Montana as strong winds propelled a large wildfire toward inhabited areas.

The mandatory evacuation covered Lodge Pole, a town of about 300 people on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, and the former mining town of Zortman, which has about two dozen people, KOJM reported.

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Thick smoke that held down winds and temperatures in the zone of the largest single wildfire in California history cleared Monday from scenic forestlands, allowing firefighting aircraft to rejoin the battle to contain the massive Dixie Fire.

The newly clear skies will allow more than two dozen helicopters and two air tankers that have been grounded to fly again and make it safer for ground crews to maneuver.

“With this kind of weather, fire activity will pick up. But the good thing is we can get aircraft up,” said fire spokesman Ryan Bain.

Winds were not expected to reach the ferocious speeds that helped the blaze explode in size last week. But they were still a concern for firefighters working in unprecedented conditions to protect thousands of threatened homes.

Fueled by powerful gusts and bone-dry vegetation, the fire incinerated much of the small community of Greenville last Wednesday and Thursday. At least 627 homes and other structures had been destroyed by Monday and another 14,000 buildings were still threatened in the northern Sierra Nevada.

Damage reports are preliminary because assessment teams can’t get into many areas, officials said.

The Dixie Fire, named for the road where it started nearly four weeks ago, grew to an area of 765 square miles (1,980 square kilometers) by Sunday evening and was just 21% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It had scorched an area more than twice the size of New York City.

Four firefighters were taken to the hospital Friday after being struck by a fallen branch. More than 30 people were initially reported missing, but by Monday the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office had accounted for all of them.

With smoke clearing out above eastern portions of the fire, crews that had been directly attacking the front lines would be forced to retreat and build containment lines farther back, said Dan McKeague, a fire information officer from the U.S. Forest Service.

The blaze became the largest single fire in California’s recorded history, surpassing last year’s Creek Fire in the the state’s central valley agricultural region.

The Dixie Fire is about half the size of the August Complex, a series of lightning-caused 2020 fires across seven counties that were fought together and that state officials consider California’s largest wildfire overall.

The fire’s cause was under investigation. Pacific Gas & Electric has said it may have been sparked when a tree fell on one of its power lines. A federal judge ordered PG&E on Friday to give details by Aug. 16 about the equipment and vegetation where the fire started.

Gov. Gavin Newsom surveyed the damage in Greenville over the weekend, writing on Twitter that “our hearts ache for this town.”

“These are climate-induced wildfires and we have to acknowledge that we have the capacity in not just the state but in this country to solve this,” Newsom said on CNN.

Heat waves and historic drought tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West. Scientists have said climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

Northwest of the Dixie Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, hundreds of homes remained threatened by two fires that continued to grow. About a quarter of the McFarland Fire was contained. New evacuation orders were issued Monday for residents near the Monument Fire, which was only about 3% contained.

South of the Dixie Fire, firefighters prevented further growth of the River Fire, which broke out Wednesday near the community of Colfax and destroyed 68 homes.

Smoke from wildfires burning in the U.S. West continues to flow into parts of Colorado and Utah, where the air quality in many areas was rated as unhealthy. Denver’s air quality improved on Sunday, but the smoke has made the air there and in Salt Lake City among the worst in the world.

California’s fire season is on track to surpass last year’s season, which was the worst in recent recorded state history.

Since the start of the year, more than 6,000 blazes have destroyed more than 1,260 square miles (3,260 square kilometers) of land — more than triple the losses for the same period in 2020, according to state fire figures.

California’s raging wildfires were among 107 large fires burning across 14 states, mostly in the West, where historic drought conditions have left lands parched and ripe for ignition.

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