Amid a worsening climate crisis, the fires in California have reached catastrophic levels as the Gifford Fire rips through the central coast, tearing across dry forests and mountain terrain with alarming speed and intensity.

The Gifford Fire, a wildfire burning in Central California that has destroyed over 83,000 acres in six days, continues to rage and is now the largest blaze in the state this year, according to Cal Fire.

The new orders were for an area near the west edge of Gifford, burning since last week in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

New evacuations have been ordered in Central California as the massive Gifford Fire nears 100,000 acres burned. The fire is the largest of the year in California with more than 96,000 acres scorched,

Wildfires that tore through Los Angeles early this year may have caused hundreds more deaths than official reports show, new research suggests. While the fires were said to have taken 31 lives, a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that about 440 more deaths may be linked to the disaster.