Largest California wildfires nearly contained, officials say

Two of California’s largest wildfires are nearly under control, fire department officials said Tuesday, adding that they expect to fully contain one within 24 hours.

The King fire, which has burned nearly 100,000 acres of the Eldorado National Forest near Sacramento, is 98 percent contained. Firefighters said they expect to have it completely contained by Wednesday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) website said.

The Happy Camp fire, which has burned over 130,000 acres of the Klamath National Forest near the border with Oregon, is 97 percent contained, and authorities expect to have it under control by the end of the month, according to Cal Fire.

While lightning ignited the Happy Camp fire, the King fire was caused by arson on Sept. 13, authorities said. Firefighters reported on InciWeb, an interagency website run by the United States Forest Service, that the region’s extreme terrain slowed the King fire’s containment.

Wayne Huntsman, 37, of Pollock Pines, California, has been accused of intentionally setting the King fire, which burned at least 12 homes and dozens of other structures. Thousands of firefighters battled the blaze, and nearly 3,000 people were given evacuation orders.

As the King fire ripped through the Eldorado National Forest in September, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency. The King fire was the largest of 11 fires burning across the state last month in what has been called the most destructive fire season on record.

Three straight years of drought in California have made wildfires more likely to spark and spread quickly. Some scientists have attributed the historic drought to climate change, saying it has made California warmer and drier.

The new climate reality has forced officials to throw away their normal fire season calendar and issue warnings that it could now be year round. The state’s fire department has added hundreds of fire fighters to its payroll since the beginning of the year, Cal Fire said.

Over 1,000 wildfires have struck California since the beginning of the year, nearly doubling the number seen in the same period last year, according to Cal Fire.

“My captain would talk about that once-in-a-career fire,” Janet Upton, deputy director of communications for Cal Fire, told Al Jazeera in April. “But my generation and the generation behind have had dozens of once-in-a-career fires. That’s alarming.”