The deadly Camp fire grew slightly overnight _ to 151,373 acres _ as firefighters continued their efforts to get the blaze under control.
The fire, which has claimed at least 79 lives and destroyed more than 17,000 homes and commercial structures, is 70 percent contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Tuesday.
At the same time firefighters work to control the blaze, residents in the burn area now face the potential for mudslides as a series of storms begin to make their way into the region.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch through Friday morning where the fire raged through Butte County. While the rainfall will help with the firefight, neighborhoods that were destroyed, and those downstream of them, could see mudslides and debris flows, authorities said.
The burn zone could see up to 6 inches of rain through Saturday, which isn't unusual for that region, said Johnnie Powell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. In April, Paradise saw nearly 6 inches of rain in one day in what was its last significant storm.
"Best-case scenario, it'll rain on it and nothing will move. Worst-case scenario, the mud will start moving," Powell said. "We just have to wait and see what happens. All we know for sure is, it's going to rain really hard."
