Four homes have been destroyed, and 2,000 acres charred in the Lower Lake area of Lake County, California.

Local media reported that residents of about 500 homes had been asked to evacuate the town as fires raged nearby.

Crews have been battling nearly 30 major wildfires burning across the U.S. West, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, five of them in California.

The wildfire season has reached its traditional peak, intensified by prolonged drought and extreme summer heat across the state.

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