In a summer of destructive blazes across Central and Northern California, the King fire — burning out of control in the forest east of Sacramento — has officials particularly alarmed. The fire exploded in a matter of hours into the second-largest in California this year, forcing the closure of California 50 and moving north toward Tahoe National Forest.

The fire, believed to be arson, has produced a massive smoke plume the length of Colorado and is pushing embers across canyons, reservoirs and rivers, outracing the thousands of firefighters trying to control it.

The King fire is the latest in a series of major blazes to roar out of control in vegetation left tinder-dry by California’s three-year drought. On Monday, 150 structures were lost in the logging town of Weed, just west of Mt. Shasta, when a wildfire swept through. A fire destroyed 30 homes a day earlier in Madera County.

“These times are unprecedented here in California with respect to fire behavior,” Unit Chief Mike Kaslin of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Thursday.

More than 4,000 firefighters have been assigned to battle the King fire. They have pumped more than 450,000 gallons of fire retardant from Sacramento, dropping 210,000 gallons on Wednesday alone to battle the fast-moving blaze.

“We’re literally setting a world record with respect to retardant drops and use on this fire,” Kaslin said.
Officials said it was now costing $5 million a day to fight the fire.

Fire season has slowly subsided in other parts of the country, officials said, and California fires are the primary focus now, with multiple local, state and federal agencies putting all available resources into the effort. More than 66,000 firefighters are battling 10 major fires in California this week, and resources have been stretched across the state in an effort to contain more than 200 smaller fires a week and prevent outbreaks like the King fire, officials said.

The largest fire recorded in the state this year, the 125,788-acre Happy Camp Complex fire near the Oregon state line, has been burning since late Aug. 11.

“The threat has not gone away,” Kaslin said. “We are seeing some fire behavior here in September that we have not seen before and in a long time…. California still has a long way to go to get out of fire season 2014.”

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-north-wildfires-20140919-story.html?track=rss