More than a million acres of California landscape have been torched and Golden State firefighters are bracing for more conflagrations this week.
Crews are battling 10 large blazes including the Dixie Fire, the second-biggest in state history, that has already scorched about 570,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,000 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The Dixie Fire, which may have been started by equipment owned by utility giant PG&E Corp., was 31% contained as of Monday morning.
Meanwhile, PG&E began notifying about 39,000 customers in Northern California that it may need to cut power as soon as Tuesday evening to prevent electrical lines from sparking new fires during dry and windy weather.
The National Weather Service has issued a fire-weather watch for portions of Northern California for Tuesday evening through late Wednesday with expected wind gusts as high as 35 miles per hour (56 kilometers per hour).
A severe drought has parched much of the most-populous U.S. state, leaving hillside grasses and forests vulnerable to ignition.
This year’s pace of destruction is already ahead of last year’s, when about 838,000 acres burned during the same period.
The destruction comes ahead of what’s typically the most-active fire period, when autumn offshore winds pick up and lead to dangerous fire conditions.
