The Dixie Fire has grown to be the second largest wildfire in California's history, as thousands of homes continue to be threatened by the blaze.
By 8:00 p.m. local time on Sunday, the fire had destroyed 489,287 acres of land while only being 21 percent contained, according to Cal Fire. The fire has grown significantly since Friday, when it was 35 percent contained with 278,227 acres burned.
Although no deaths have yet been attributed to the blaze, currently the largest active wildfire in the U.S., at least three people are missing and 14,000 structures are threatened by the fire, according to Reuters.
Data shared by Cal Fire shows that the Dixie Fire is now the second largest in California's history, just behind the August Complex blaze that burned more than 1 million acres in 2020.
After growing to more than 764 square miles, the Dixie Fire is now bigger than Dallas, New York City and Houston, while being just two thirds the size of Yosemite National Park.
At least 42 structures have been damaged and 627 buildings have been destroyed due to the fire, which began burning in the state on July 14.
Evacuation orders have been put in place for Butte, Plumas, Lassen and Tehama Counties due to the blaze that destroyed parts of the mountain town Greenville last week.
Photographs from Greenville posted online showed a glowing orange sky and several buildings engulfed by flames. A video shared to Twitter by @SoCalFirePhoto showed the aftermath of the blaze, with several buildings destroyed and large plumes of smoke obstructing visibility.
At least 107 large wildfires are currently burning in the U.S. after a heatwave and drought in early July caused blazes to break out across the West Coast, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Officials have also stressed that the wildfires have been exacerbated by the effects of climate change, which is likely to worsen in the future.
Close to 24,000 wildland firefighters and incident management teams are battling the blazes, which have so far burned over 2.2 million acres across 15 states.
California has had the most land burned at 724,423 acres, with the Dixie Fire accounting for more than half of it, while the Beckwourth Complex Fire has destroyed 105,670 acres in the state at 98 percent containment.
Oregon has seen 577,147 acres burn from active large wildfires, as fire crews continue to tackle the 16 blazes in the state. The largest is the Bootleg Fire, which has burned 413,765 in the state while being 96 percent contained.
Montana and Idaho have recorded fewer acres burned than Oregon or California, but are the worst affected states in terms of the number of blazes. There are 25 active fires in Montana and 20 in Idaho.
Across the United States, more acres have burned this year compared to this point in 2020, but less than in 2019. There were 39,267 fires affecting 3,540,703 acres recorded from January 1 to August 8, 2021, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
That compares to 33,683 fires and 2,288,770 acres for the same period in 2020 and 28,331 fires and 3,583,751 acres in 2019.
