McKinney fire: Four dead as California wildfire gets bigger and remains uncontained
Two more people have been killed in Northern California’s McKinney Fire bringing the death toll to four.
The blaze, which started on Friday, has quickly become the largest wildfire in California so far this year.
As of Tuesday, it had burned through over 56,000 acres, nearly the size of Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s office confirmed two additional deaths. The bodies were discovered at two separate homes along State Route 96 after fired had burned through the area. The victims were not identified.
No one in the area is currently unaccounted for.
The McKinney fire is 0 per cent contained, the state fire agency, Cal Fire, reported on Tuesday.
Despite this, some progress has been made in controlling the blaze as crews attacked the perimeter and rain fell over part of the region earlier this week, reports the Associated Press.
Mandatory evacuation orders are still in place for much of Siskiyou County, which borders Oregon, including part of Yreka – the county’s largest city, with nearly 8,000 residents.
Parts of the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs north to south along the west coast of the US, have also been closed, and dozens of hikers have been evacuated.
Wildfires are expected to grow more common as the climate crisis exacerbates drought and heat, two conditions that can lead to blazes. Two other blazes have threatened the area around Yosemite National Park in central California this year, including the famous Mariposa Grove of giant sequoia trees.
This fire is just the latest in what has been a remarkably active wildfire season in the US, with over 5.7 million acres burned since 1 January – over five times the size of Rhode Island. That’s vastly more than the 10-year average for this time of year of around 3.6 million acres.
In addition to California, large fires are burning in Alaska, Nebraska, Idaho, Montana and elsewhere.
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