The Caldor Fire burning in El Dorado County, which was at 6,500 acres as of yesterday morning and 30,000 acres by evening, continued tearing through the El Dorado National Forest overnight, and as of Wednesday morning it had hit 53,000 acres.

"We know this fire has done things that nobody could have predicted, but that’s how firefighting has been in the state this year,” said El Dorado National Forest Supervisor Chief Jeff Marsolais in a briefing this morning, per the Associated Press.

Firefighters say the fire behavior they're seeing is "unprecedented," driven by the abundance of bone-dry fuels and high winds.

Evoking images of the Camp Fire three years ago, the small town of Grizzly Flats was flattened by fire Tuesday, with around 50 homes burned, and two people were seriously injured as the fire blew through the area. Both had to be airlifted for medical attention, and a fire official said they "may not have had time to react" to the fire, as the Chronicle reports.

Like the town of Greenville, which was destroyed in the Dixie Fire two weeks ago, Grizzly Flats is a community of about 1,000 people.

Randi Harrod, a resident of Sly Park, spoke to the Chronicle as she waited in a parking lot with some of her belongings and two cats.

"It’s just something we’ve been dreading," Harrod said. "You check the yard, you rake the leaves to prepare and you know it’s coming sometime."

Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in El Dorado County on Wednesday, and the entirety of El Dorado National Forest was closed to the public.

A new evacuation order came Wednesday for the town of Kyburz.

Here in the Bay Area, smoke from the Caldor and Dixie fires created a thick layer dimming and discoloring the sun Wednesday morning.

As the Associated Press notes, these are just two of the nearly 100 wildfires currently burning across the West.

The Dixie Fire, now burning for over a month, grew to 635,728 acres overnight, and is now 33% contained.

Top Image: AlertWildfire/PG&E