Winds drive nation's largest wildfire toward California city

Firefighters face more dangerously windy weather as they struggle to keep the nation's largest wildfire from moving toward a Northern California county seat and other small communities

SUSANVILLE, Calif. -- Firefighters faced more dangerously windy weather Tuesday as they struggled to keep the nation's largest wildfire from moving toward a Northern California county seat and other small mountain communities. Forecasters issued red flag warnings of critical fire weather conditions including gusts up to 40 mph (64 kph) from late morning to near midnight. Winds spawned by a new weather system arrived Monday afternoon and pushed the Dixie Fire within a few miles of Susanville, population about 18,000, and prompted evacuation orders for the small nearby mountain community of Janesville, fire officials said. “The fire moved fast last night,” fire spokesman David Janssen said early Tuesday.