Wildfires sweep through California, US

Hundreds of homes have been evacuated after intense wildfires swept through northern California.

More than 1,600 firefighters are battling the so-called Ponderosa Fire, another natural disaster striking the US while the South battles tropical storm Harvey.

Temperatures touching 40C are fuelling the flames that have already charred 3,600 acres since Tuesday.

Firefighters are dumping retardant on the blaze and have contained 30% of it but fear new pockets could break out because of the heat.
Authorities said at least 10 houses and 20 outbuildings have been destroyed, and urged residents in vulnerable areas to evacuate into shelters.

"One of the issues we ran into on this fire is there's a lot of people who



didn't actually evacuate," said fire official Paul Lowenthal.

One man has been arrested on suspicion of causing the blaze by starting a campfire outside a designated area and allowing it to spread out of control.

Oroville resident John Ballenger will appear in court on Friday.
Thousands of homes have been evacuated and the main travel route to the Burning Man festival closed after other wildfires across the US.

Airtankers dumped retardant on flaming desert shrubs in Nevada, just 40 miles from the massive counter-culture event.

The route has since reopened.

In Oregon, thousands of people were driven from their homes and mass sporting events were cancelled because of the smoke and threat of fire.