What's turned out to be the most massive wildfire of the season so far, the Rocky Fire that began last Wednesday in Lake County has now spread across two other county lines, Colusa and Yolo, and has now scorched 60,000 acres and counting. As we noted over the weekend, the fire grew at an explosive rate between Saturday and Sunday, doubling in size, and CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant told the Chron that its 20,000-acre run in five hours was "a historic, unprecedented amount of acreage burned by a fire in such a short amount of time."
According to CalFire's latest update, the fire is only 12 percent contained. So far it has destroyed some 24 residences, and at least 6,000 more structures remain under threat.
The New York Times picked up the fire story today reporting on the 21 different wildfires now burning across the state, but the Rocky Fire dwarfs them all.
The Big Creek Fire near Yosemite, which we mentioned last week, ended up burning only 204 acres and is now 85 percent contained.
The Wragg Fire which burned over 8,000 acres in Napa and Solano Counties is 95 percent contained as of this morning.
Additionally there have been multiple lightning-started fires in Mendocino and Humboldt Counties the Mendocino Lightning Fires are now completely contained, but in Humboldt, 2,692 acres have been scorched in the southeastern part of the county, and those fires are listed as only 15 percent contained.
On Friday, Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in order to free up more funds for the firefight.
The video below shows the National Guard's assistance effort.
Here's some CBS coverage of the Rocky Fire in which a fire captain says, "Sadly I think when we're done with this one, we'll be on to the next one."
Previously: Make No Mistake, California, This Fire Season Is Likely To Be Terrible