Ten of California's 15 biggest recorded wildfires have now ignited within the last five years, thanks to the Caldor Fire's continued growth.
The Caldor Fire became the 15th-largest wildfire in California history on Tuesday night when Cal Fire announced it had burned 199,632 acres. It was 18 percent contained, up from 16 percent containment on Tuesday morning.
The fire continued to rage through Tuesday, bringing the total acres burned up to 204,390 on Wednesday. Fire crews made slight progress through Tuesday with fire containment reaching 20 percent. The increased containment shows slow, steady progress.
Although nobody had died and five people have been injured as of Tuesday night, the fire still threatened just shy of 35,000 structures.
Of the 14 fires to burn more acres than the Dixie Fire, only one occurred prior to the 21st century. Three happened before 2010, while eight burned prior to 2020.
In all, two thirds of the state's top 15 have burned since 2017.
Scientific research indicates California has experienced an unprecedented number of wildfires in recent years as a consequence of warmer, drier conditions in the state due to climate change.
Those fires, in turn, are also behaving in unprecedented ways.
The Caldor and Dixie fires were the two biggest in the state as of Wednesday, and the latter had burned 844,081 acres with containment at 52 percent. Both fires crossed the Sierra Nevada this month.
Never, in the history of the state, had a wildfire crossed the mountain range prior to this August.
"Two times in our history, and they’re both happening this month," Cal Fire Director Thom Porter said in a statewide fire briefing on Monday. "So we need to be really cognizant that there is fire activity happening in California that we have never seen before."
Evacuation orders extended into Nevada for the first time on Tuesday. Douglas County ordered residents in some areas to leave, but Stateline casinos were exempt.
Were the Caldor Fire to burn into Nevada, it would become only the second among California’s 20 largest wildfires to cross state lines. The August 2012 Rush Fire, which originated in Lassen County, burned 271,911 acres in California and 43,966 in Nevada.
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