McKinney Fire Forces the Evacuation of Thousands of Residents, Becoming California's Largest Wildfire in 2022

The McKinney Fire has become California's largest wildfire in 2022 after amassing in size to dozens of thousands of acres over the weekend.

The sudden spread resulted in large-scale evacuations and made the wildland fire earn the title of having the highest number of burnt land area so far this year.

The massive blaze in Northern California erupted in the Klamath National Forest, close to the California-Oregon border, prior to the recent weekend.

Thick smoke from the fire also hampered efforts of firefighters to contain or at least to contain the fire, which is a long way ahead since no progress have been reported yet.

The cause of the fire remains unknown at the time of reporting.

However, previous weather reports indicated that a new round of massive heat wave is currently enveloping the Pacific Northwest last week, causing temperatures to spike up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more in some locations.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries associated with the McKinney Fire.

Nevertheless, the flames are expected to further spread to dry vegetation, increasing the risk for towns and settlements near forests and grasslands.

Natural habitats are also in dangers as multiple animal deaths have been reported from previous related natural events.

McKinney Fire

In a new release, forest service officials said the conditions brought by the McKinney Fire remain to be extremely dangerous for fighters.

The threat is due to the unpredictable and strong winds that can push the fire in any direction, as cited by CNN.

The McKinney Fire has already spread to over 50,000 acres as of Monday, August 1, which made it relatively worse than compared to recent wildland fires in The Golden State.

It also advanced to a number of homes and forced almost 2,000 residents to evacuated on Saturday, July 30.

In particular, the fire has been calculated to burnt 52,498 acres of land, according to Cal Fire Capt. Chris Bruno, who told the estimation to CNN.

Fire Containment Efforts

Local officials said the fire is still 0% contained as of latest reports on Sunday, July 31.

A total of 648 firefighting personnel has been deployed into the area. Ground and air equipment also assist in the containment efforts.

Aside from strong winds, the wildfire growth is aggravated by weather conditions such as high temperatures and dry thunderstorms.

Collectively called by the National Weather Service (NWS) as "abundant lightning" and "dry fuels," the following factors have also challenged the ongoing operations, as they can also trigger new fires.

So far, 10 different wildfires have been reported in the forest area.

The officials attributed the generation of new fires from their "own weather" as pyro cumulus clouds forces hot air to rise due to the intense heat from the fire.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Friday, July 29, the frequency, severity, and size of wildfires has increased in most parts of the United States in recent decades.

Amongst these catastrophic events, the USDA said California recorded the largest fire burnt during the 2018 wildfire season.