California's largest wildfire, the Rocky Fire, tripled in size over the weekend. Burning in Lake, Yolo, and Colusa counties northwest of Sacramento, it has already consumed 54,000 acres and, as of Sunday, was only 5 percent contained. And it's just one of many: A total of 9,000 firefighters are combating over 21 major blazes throughout the state. Even as the fires turn deadly — one firefighter has been killed, and 12,000 evacuated — photos of the northern Californian fires have an unexpected, if terrifying, beauty.
"The behavior of this fire [is] unprecedented,” California's fire spokesman, Jason Shanley, told The Sacramento Bee. "It's jaw dropping to see some of the things it's doing." Jeva Lange
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