Firefighters in Hemet, California, were battling a rapidly moving wildfire on Tuesday (September 6), which had killed two people and prompted an evacuation order, Reuters reports.
The blaze, dubbed the Fairview Fire, began shortly after 2 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Monday (September 5) and spread to 2,000 acres (810 hectares), the Cal Fire and Riverside County Fire Department said in an update late Monday.
Eyewitness footage from Tuesday showed a plane dropping retardant as smoke rose from the hills in Hemet.
More than two decades of drought and rising temperatures, exacerbated by climate change, have made California more vulnerable than ever to wildfires.
