A wildfire that began Tuesday morning has grown to over 3,000 acres and is threatening the town of Oroville as it burns up to the edges of California's second-largest reservoir.

The Thompson Fire quickly became a high priority for Cal Fire on Tuesday, after breaking out just east of Lake Oroville, and spreading to both sides of the Feather River. Cal Fire now has over 1,400 firefighting personnel fighting the blaze, with the help of eight helicopters, one of which can be seen in video below picking up water from the reservoir and flying it a short distance to pour on the fire.

"Numerous firefighting air tankers from throughout the State are flying fire suppression missions as conditions allow," Cal Fire says in an update.

The Butte County Sheriff's Office has issued evacuation orders affecting around 28,000 residents of Oroville and the surrounding area, as NBC Bay Area reports. Four structures have been confirmed destroyed so far, with at least 12,000 more under threat from the blaze.

The facilities around Oroville Dam were also evacuated Tuesday, and as the Chronicle reports, dam managers with the California Department of Water Resources are monitoring it remotely.

The map below shows the fire burning right up to 770-foot dam itself.

The Thompson Fire is burning in an area just north of the Apache Fire, which broke out near the community of Palermo early last week. That fire is now fully extinguished.

Map via Cal Fire

As numerous fires burn around the state during a period of extreme heat, Governor Gavin Newsom activated the State Operations Center this week, and said that federal funding was coming in to help with the firefighting effort.

"We are using every available tool to tackle this fire and will continue to work closely with our local and federal partners to support impacted communities," Newsom said in a statement Wednesday morning. "As we head into some of the most challenging months of wildfire season, the state is better prepared than ever to protect at-risk communities with new tools, technology and resources."

Top image: JDubsWoke/X