UPDATE: Man arrested, charged with arson in connection to one of California's massive wildfires

| August 9, 2018 in World News

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(UPDATE: Aug. 9 @ 6:50 a.m.) - California is currently being ravaged by wildfires.

The Mendocino Complex wildfire took only 10 days to become the biggest in state history and is now measured as well over 300,000 acres.

The Holy Fire isn't nearly that size, but it's located in Cleveland National Forest, a short drive outside the Los Angeles suburbs, and has a large number of communities on evacuation notice. 

On Wednesday, an arrest was made in connection to that fire, which has burnt more than 4,000 acres and already destroyed 12 structures.

Forrest Gordon Clark was booked into Orange County Jail on Wednesday, according to the Cleveland National Forest service, the administrative service in charge of this fire.

The 51-year-old faces two counts of felony arson, one count of felony threat to terrorize and one count of misdemeanor resisting arrest.

(Original story: Aug. 7 @ 7:30 a.m.) - It hasn’t even been two weeks, but the Mendocino Complex wildfire is now the largest in California state history.

As of Tuesday morning, the fire sits at 290,692 acres (117,639 hectares), surpassing the Thomas Fire from December 2017, which reached 281,000 acres.

It began as two fires northwest of Sacramento on July 27 and only took 10 days to reach a record breaking size.

Unlike the Carr wildfire a little further north, which has killed seven people, there are no reported deaths from the Mendocino Complex wildfire.

It has, however, destroyed 75 residences and 68 other structures, with another 11,300 structures being threatened by the flames.

There’s no shortage of resources devoted to trying to contain this massive fire either.

More than 3,900 personnel are battling the inferno, with the use of 441 engines, 93 water tenders, 15 helicopters, 62 hand crews and 85 bulldozers.

They’ve managed to get the fire to 34% contained, but CAL FIRE doesn’t expect the blaze to be fully contained until at least Sept. 1.

A number of evacuation orders, evacuation alerts and road closures are in place due to the fire, which continues into day 11 today.

The Mendocino Complex wildfire would have been the fourth biggest fire in B.C. last summer and the fifth biggest in provincial history. 

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