Firefighters advance against blaze in California ahead of warming weather

Fire crews worked Tuesday to hold on to the progress made against the largest blaze in California this year ahead of warming temperatures forecast for later this week.

Authorities said containment was 14 per cent and lifted evacuation orders in some communities of Butte County, where the Park Fire started last week before spreading to a neighbouring county and scorching an area bigger than Los Angeles. The massive fire continues to burn through rugged, inaccessible terrain with dense vegetation, threatening to spread to two other counties.

That's going to be a continued challenge for us moving forward over the next couple of days," said Mark Brunton, an operations section chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The Park Fire, now the fifth largest in the state's recorded history, was one of more than 100 large active wildfires burning in the US on Tuesday. It has scorched nearly 600 square miles (1,551 square kilometres), according to CAL Fire. For ...