Evacuations, destruction as California's largest fire of year rages

LOS ANGELES - Throngs of firefighters were mobilized in California Monday to battle the state's largest blaze of the year, which has prompted thousands of evacuations and already burned an area larger than the city of Los Angeles.

The Park Fire outside of Chico in the state's north has been raging since Wednesday in a rural region about three hours' drive northeast of San Francisco.

It has now ravaged more than 149,700 hectares, according to the Cal Fire agency, making it one of the largest fires in state history.

No casualties have been reported so far, and firefighters benefitted from a slight drop in temperatures over the weekend that allowed them to make some progress, with the fire now 12 percent contained.

Nearly 4,900 firefighters have been mobilised, with 33 helicopters, 400 fire trucks and numerous planes battling the conflagration.

More than 26,000 residents were under evacuation orders Monday afternoon, with authorities calling for extreme caution due to a high risk of fire escalation.

"This fire is extremely unstable and unpredictable," Tehama County Sheriff Dave Kain told a press conference Monday.

"We've seen many places that we thought were going to be safe to move back into erupt in flames again," he added.

The fire progressed during the first 48 hours at the speed of a person walking and has spawned fire tornadoes and generated smoke shaped like mushroom clouds.