Caldor Fire's Latest Estimates Show Nearly 450 Buildings Destroyed, Dixie Fire at 1,259

As a dozen large wildfires burned in California on Monday, the Caldor Fire's latest estimates shows it has destroyed 447 buildings, while the Dixie Fire has destroyed 1,259, the Associated Press reported.

In the El Dorado National Forest, the Caldor Fire has scorched more than 166 square miles of Sierra slopes southwest of Lake Tahoe. It currently threatens over 17,000 structures. Meanwhile, the massive Dixie Fire's containment rose to 40 percent as the blaze has burned over 1,130 square miles of land in the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades region.

The buildings the Dixie Fire has destroyed include 678 single-family homes, according to Cal Fire.

Over 13,500 firefighters were engaged in combating the state's wildfires as of Monday, with the blazes burning mostly in the north.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

The California wildfires have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of people to flee to safety.

In Northern California, there were no red flag warnings for critical conditions, but the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said fire danger was expected to remain elevated through midweek.

Nearly 13,000 structures remain threatened due to the Dixie Fire.

Tallies of losses also increased at the Caldor Fire.

Cal Fire said the potential for large wildfires will continue to be low in Southern California. Intrusion of moist ocean air inland has been keeping skies cloudy and temperatures cooler than normal well into each day.

While Southern California has so far escaped large-scale wildfires this year, Los Angeles officials on Monday urged residents to be aware of what's going on in the north because the region's high fire season is typically late in the year when dry, gusty Santa Ana winds blast out of the interior and flow toward the coast.

"That awareness is going to help us when it happens here in Southern California," Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said during a briefing to display the city's fleet of firefighting helicopters at Van Nuys Airport.

The mix of spring growth dried out by summer heat and high winds creates "a dangerous condition that could lead to large, fast-moving brush fires," he said.

California's fires were among more than 90 large, active blazes in the U.S. on Monday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

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.