LOS ANGELES _ A Northern California wildfire has burned four homes and forced more than 1,000 people to evacuate their lake community, authorities said Sunday.
The fast-moving Clayton fire broke out late Saturday afternoon off Highway 29 and Clayton Creek Road, not far from Lower Lake, a community located more than 100 miles north of San Francisco, officials said.
Extreme hot weather combined with the dry brush allowed the fire to grow overnight, burning about 1,400 acres and destroying four homes, according to Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The fire, which is only 6 percent contained, is threatening about 500 structures in the Lake County area and has forced about 1,400 people to evacuate their homes, according to Undersheriff Chris Macedo of the Lake County Sheriff's Department.
Berlant said the county was particularly hard hit by the state's lingering drought.
"So when a fire ignites they're able to move rapidly," he said.
The Clayton fire is burning between last year's Valley, Rock and Jerusalem fires that broke out around the Lower Lake area.
The wildfire is just one of several burning throughout California.
Farther south, the Soberanes fire, a deadly blaze burning north of Big Sur, has wiped out nearly 60 homes, burned more than 72,000 acres and claimed the life of a bulldozer operator.
CAL Fire officials say the fire, which was started by an illegal campfire, is 60 percent contained.
