Thousands of firefighters were battling a massive fire in Northern California on Saturday, which exploded in size, burning an area nearly the size of Los Angeles — one of several wildfires tearing through the western United States and Canada amid hot, dry, and windy conditions.

Speculation spread that cooler temperatures could help slow the spread of the Mosquito Fire, which is the largest fire so far this year in California. The intensity and dramatic spread of the Mosquito Fire prompted fire officials to draw unwelcome comparisons to the deadly Camp Fire, which burned uncontrollably in nearby Paradise in 2018, killing 85 people and destroying 11,000 homes.

More than 130 structures have been destroyed by this fire so far, and thousands are threatened as evacuation orders were issued in four counties: Butte, Plumas, Tehama, and Shasta.

The fire had burned around 480 square miles (1,243 square kilometers) as of Friday evening and was moving rapidly to the north and east after igniting on Wednesday when authorities said a man drove a burning car into a canyon in Chico and then quietly merged with others fleeing the scene.

“There’s an enormous amount of fuel out there, and it will continue at this rapid pace,” said Billy See, a fire chief in California, during a press briefing. He added that the fire was advancing at speeds of up to eight square miles (21 square kilometers) per hour on Friday afternoon.

Officials evacuated staff from Lassen Volcanic National Park in Mineral, a community of about 120 people where the park is headquartered, as the fire moved north toward Highway 36 and east toward the park.

Communities elsewhere in the western United States and Canada also faced threats on Saturday from a fast-moving fire ignited by lightning that sent people fleeing on fire-lined roads in rural Idaho to a new fire that triggered evacuations in eastern Washington.

In eastern Oregon, a pilot was found dead in a small tanker plane that crashed while fighting one of the many wildfires spreading across several western states.

The National Interagency Fire Center reported that 110 active fires covering 2,800 square miles (7,250 square kilometers) were burning in the United States on Friday. Some of these were weather-related, as climate change has increased the frequency of lightning strikes while the region endures record heat and extremely dry conditions.

Ryan Rodarick, a spokesperson for the Washington Department of Natural Resources, said a fire in eastern Washington had destroyed three homes and five outbuildings near the evacuated community of Tyler on Friday afternoon. He said firefighters had managed to contain the Columbia Basin Fire in Spokane County to about half a square mile (1.3 square kilometers).

In Chico, California, Carly Parker is one of hundreds of people who fled their homes as the Mosquito Fire approached. Parker decided to leave her house in Forest Ranch with her family when the fire began to erupt across the street. She had previously been forced to evacuate from two homes due to fire and said she had little hope her residence would survive.

Parker, a mother of five, said, “I felt like I was in danger because the police came to our house because we signed up for early evacuation warnings, and they were running to their car after telling us we needed to evacuate and they wouldn’t be back.”

Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, of Chico, was arrested early Thursday in connection with the fire and was being held on bail awaiting charges on Monday, according to officials. There was no response to an email to the district attorney asking whether the suspect had legal representation or someone who could comment on his behalf.

Amanda Brown, who lives in the same community where Stout was arrested, said she was shocked that someone would ignite a fire in an area where the memories of the devastation in Paradise are still fresh.

Brown, 61, who lives about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the fire but was not under an evacuation order, said, “For anyone to intentionally put our community at risk again is just too cruel. I don’t understand it.”

Elsewhere, firefighting teams were making progress against another set of wildfires burning in Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada border, according to Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman. Most of the 1,000 residents who were evacuated because of the Gold Complex fires ignited by lightning returned home on Friday. Some crews were dispatched to help fight the Mosquito Fire.

Tim Haik, incident commander for the Gold Complex fires about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Reno, said on Friday, “As evident from the (Mosquito) fire to the west, some of these fires are exploding and burning at rates of spread that are hard to even imagine.”

Sherri Albers, who evacuated from Forest Ranch with her twelve small dogs, opted to stay in her car outside a Red Cross shelter in Chico after learning that pets would not be allowed inside. She ruled out traveling to another shelter after discovering that the dogs would be kept in cages since they are used to roaming freely in her home.

Albers said she does not know if her home survived the fire, but she said as long as her dogs are safe, she doesn’t care about material things.

She added, “I’m somewhat worried, but not too much. If it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Brian Bowles was also staying in his car outside the shelter with his dog Diamond. He said he doesn’t know if his mobile home is still standing.

Bowles said he has only a $100 gift card he received from United Way, which has been distributed to evacuees. He faces the prospect of staying in his car or trying to find a room in a hotel.

The worst damage so far has been at Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies, where a fast-moving wildfire forced 25,000 people to evacuate and destroyed the park town of the same name, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Oregon is still grappling with the largest active fire in the United States, the Dixie Fire, which has merged with the Cube Fire to burn nearly 630 square miles (1,630 square kilometers). It is still only about 20% contained as of Friday, according to the government’s InciWeb site.

In Oregon, a pilot died after his single-engine plane crashed in a forested area while fighting the Falls Fire near the town of Seneca and Malheur National Forest.

In Idaho, lightning ignited fast-moving wildfires, prompting multiple communities to evacuate. Fires were burning across about 31 square miles (80 square kilometers) as of Friday afternoon.

Juliata, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) southeast of the University of Idaho campus in Moscow, was evacuated on Thursday ahead of the raging fires, along with several other communities.

The National Interagency Fire Center reported that over 27,000 wildfires have burned more than 5,800 square miles (15,000 square kilometers) in the United States this year, while in Canada, more than 8,000 square miles (22,800 square kilometers) have burned across more than 3,700 wildfires so far, according to a national wildfire status report released Wednesday.