California wildfire does not grow but winds and hot weather could whip up flames

Crews made steady progress overnight against a Northern California wildfire that has thousands of people under evacuation orders, but wind gusts and continued hot temperatures on Thursday could pose problems on a searing hot July Fourth, officials said.

The Thompson Fire near the city of Oroville in Butte County stayed roughly the same size and containment was still 7%, which was the same as Wednesday night, said Kevin Colburn, information officer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), said.

There are 26,000 people under evacuation orders or warnings, but numbers could drop as crews make fresh assessments.

“We’re going to evaluate and see if we can open up some areas,” Mr Colburn said.

The Thompson Fire broke out before noon on Tuesday, about 70 miles (110km) north of Sacramento. It sent up a huge plume of smoke that could be seen from space as it grew to more than 5.5 square miles (14 square kilometres).

An Associated Press photographer saw fire burn three adjacent suburban-style homes in Oroville.

The fire ignited sprigs of grass poking from the concrete edges of Lake Oroville as gusty winds whipped up American flags lining a bend of the state’s second-largest reservoir and the nation’s tallest dam.

Residents standing on hillsides watched the orange glow as aircraft dropped water. A crew of more than a dozen firefighters saved one home as goats and other farm animals fled. The cause of the blaze was being investigated.

More than a dozen other blazes, most of them small, are active across the state, according to Cal Fire.