Evacuation Orders Widened As California Fire Spreads

The Dixie Fire is already the sixth biggest in the state's history, and was still spreading thanks to gusting winds and record-low humidity.

Evacuation orders were widened Thursday as California's biggest wildfire raged through the state's tinder-dry landscape, laying waste to hundreds of square miles (kilometers). The Dixie Fire is already the sixth biggest in the state's history, and was still spreading thanks to gusting winds and record-low humidity. This week it all-but wiped out the historic mining town of Greenville, a settlement of a few hundred people dating back to the mid-1800s Gold Rush. "I'd say the majority of downtown Greenville is completely destroyed," tweeted wildfire photographer Stuart Palley, sharing images of the devastation.