Jul. 1—Firefighters held the Rices Fire to just over 900 acres for the second consecutive night, Cal Fire officials said Friday morning.
The wildfire, which has been fueled by dry vegetation and drought-stressed trees, was 22% contained, up from the 12% measured Thursday, according to officials.
Cal Fire listed the caused of the fire as an uninhabitable structure fire which spread to nearby vegetation, although the cause of the structure fire is still under investigation.
As of Thursday morning, the area's of Bridgeport, Rice's Crossing and some of French Corral remained under evacuation orders, while previous evacuation zones Buttermilk, Birchville and Sweetland were downgraded to evacuation warnings overnight.
Favorable weather conditions could provide firefighters with resources to increase containment and conduct successful mopup operations according to Cal Fire.
Thirteen firefighters have been injured while fighting the blaze, three of those due to heat illness according to Cal Fire.
Officials confirmed that the fire continued to threaten over 250 structures and has destroyed at least one structure.
Jordan Parker (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @jparkerwrites.
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