California fire threatens homes as blazes burn across West

QUINCY, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of homes remain threatened by the nation’s largest wildfire in Northern California, and firefighters across the West face a high danger of new blazes erupting because of unstable weather. Thunderstorms haven’t produced much rain, instead whipping up high winds and dry lightning strikes across the northern Sierra. That’s where 6,000 firefighters are trying to contain the month-old Dixie Fire amid extreme heat, with temperatures topping 100 degrees. More than 100 large wildfires are burning in more than a dozen states across the West. The region is being seared by drought and bone-dry weather that has turned forests, brushlands, meadows and pastures into tinder.