Around 14,000 firefighters from all corners the globe are still battling to contain the out-of-control Mendocino Complex Fire which has destroyed more than 100 homes.
The blaze is being fuelled by dry vegetation, high winds and rugged terrain that makes it too dangerous for firefighters to directly attack the flames.
But crews, including prisoners and crews from overseas, have managed to cut lines around half the fire to contain the flames.
Meanwhile police arrested Forest Gordon Clark, 51, on two counts of arson in connection to the Holy Fire which has burned more than six-square-miles in the Santa Ana Mountains.
That inferno has destroyed 12 cabins and injured at least two firemen. Clark was also booked on counts of threat to terrorise and resisting arrest.
The main blaze, around 100 miles from San Francisco around the resort region of Clear Lake, has destroyed 116 homes and injured two firefighters.
Cal Fire said the flames are out of control to the north, roaring into remote and underpopulated areas of thick forests and deep ravines as firefighters contend with record-breaking temperatures.
Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox said the area has few natural barriers to slow flames and terrain that firefighters cannot get to.
So firefighters fall back to the nearest road, ridge or river, where they bulldoze a wide line and wait for the flames to come to them.
Evacuations have been ordered for several small mountain communities near where a forest fire continues to grow in Southern California.
The Mendocino Complex, which will take months to put out, is one of 18 burning throughout the state.
Because of such extreme conditions early on, officials and experts warned that California could be facing its toughest wildfire season yet.
Around 4,000 firefighters are working to stop the fire from reaching communities at the southern tip of the Mendocino National Forest.
The blaze became the largest in California history on Monday, only eight months after the previous record fire.
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Wednesday directed federal agencies to use any water that was needed to "protect life and property".
On Sunday, President Donald Trump claimed that California was letting water run into the ocean instead of using it to fight fires.
The comments baffled California firefighters, who said they had more than enough water to douse the flames.
Meanwhile Northern California officials are contending with a norovirus outbreak at a wildfire evacuation shelter.
Lake County Public Health Director Denise Pomeroy said Wednesday that 20 to 30 people had shown symptoms of the virus in the last 48 hours.
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