VIDEO. Dixie Fire, the devastating California blaze, now generates its own climate

It is the biggest fire in the state of California.

Its name: the Dixie Fire.

Since mid-July, the blaze, fanned by stifling heat, alarming drought and continuous winds, has already devoured the equivalent of the city of Chicago in vegetation.

That is more than 600 km2 reduced to ashes.

Dixie Fire has grown so large that it now generates its own climate, forming clouds called "pyrocumulus" capable of producing strong lightning and winds that feed it back.

Enough to make the task of firefighters even more difficult.

They are nearly 5,400 firefighters mobilized day and night in the forests of northern California.

“It's more difficult to fight him.

Fires that cover an area of ​​more than 400 km2 cannot be stopped so easily, explains David Tikkanen, captain of the California forestry department.

It makes things more stressful and it's more dangerous ”.

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Despite its size, the Dixie Fire has so far only progressed in extremely secluded areas, which explains why only dozens of structures (houses and other buildings) have so far been destroyed.

Forest fires are common in California.

So much so that the inhabitants still sometimes wonder what remains to be burned.

Due to climate change, this summer 2021 is all the more violent in the US state.

The fires have already devastated three times more vegetation than they did at this time last year.

2020 being considered the worst year in California history in terms of fires.

According to a preliminary investigation, it is the fall of a tree on an electric cable belonging to Pacific Gas & Company (PG&E) which would be at the origin of the Dixie Fire. The private operator is already guilty of causing Camp Fire in 2018, a few kilometers away. This fire had virtually wiped the city of Paradise off the map and killed 86 people.