(CN) --- The Dixie Fire grew to more than 200,000 acres in Northern California overnight, jumping fire breaks and threatening thousands of homes and businesses.
“The east zone of the Dixie Fire was impacted by extreme fire behavior yesterday,” Cal Fire said Tuesday during its daily update. “The fire burned into the Greenville Wye and burned across both Highway 70 and Highway 89. Firefighters engaged immediately in structure protection in nearby communities.”
The communities of Paxton and Indian Falls, where approximately 4,000 people reside, remain under evacuation orders and imminent threat of being destroyed.
The Dixie Fire --- which merged with the Fly Fire --- is burning in remote and rugged terrain that is difficult to access, meaning firefighters have channeled their energy toward structure defense on the eastern flank.
“Firefighters are preparing fire line southwest of Taylorsville to protect the community as the fire advances,” the agency said.
The news is better for the Tamarack Fire, burning about 30 miles south of Lake Tahoe. Monsoonal moisture streaming north from the desert southwest dropped significant precipitation on the blaze, which has only grown by 2% in the past 24 hours.
“We continue to get containment and we are making progress,” said Pat Seekins, the operations chief for the fire. With 54% containment, the U.S. Forest Service has lifted evacuation orders for residents from certain areas, particularly near the Blue Lakes area.
In Oregon, the Bootleg Fire is now the third-largest in Beaver State history, having grown to about 410,000 acres. But firefighters are making progress on the blaze burning in a remote part of the state, with containment currently at 54%.
“Our firefighters are in good spots and continue to do good work,” said Norm McDonald, the incident commander during a Tuesday morning briefing.
Several cities across the nation have issued air quality warnings, with some as far east as Boston warning residents about strenuous exercise due to smoke that has drifted eastward with the jet stream.
Bangor, Maine, has the same air quality as parts of Montana that are thousands of miles closer to wildfires, according to NOAA’s air quality index.
About 1.5 million acres across the American West have been charred by large fires so far this fire season. Counting numerous spot fires, the acreage is closer to 2.7 million.
For places like California, the true fire season doesn’t begin until August and lasts through the first rain of the season, which forecasters hope will come in early October.
Temperatures will remain unseasonably warm in most areas of the West, which will prolong drought conditions that have rendered much of the vegetation in the mountains and prairies amenable to wildfire spread.
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