Wildfires in California have burned a record more than two million acres, the state fire department told AFP on Monday. Rescue operations to airlift dozens of people trapped by an uncontrolled blaze were hampered by excessive smoke. 

In an update, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said that the Creek Fire in northern California has so far spread to 135,525 acres, destroyed 65 structures and is out of control. 

 Fresno Fire Battalion chief Tony Escobedo said that smoke was hampering efforts by military choppers to rescue dozens of people trapped by the rapidly-expanding fire. He said, “The difficulty of the helicopters trying to get through the smoke has proven a challenge during the day. They weren’t able to land several times, several attempts throughout the day. We are going to try to do it again this evening with their night vision capability. We have reports in excess of 50 people or more.”

In a tweet, Fresno Fire Department said, “Military pilots tried valiantly to land but heavy smoke conditions prevented a safe approach, another effort will be made shortly to evacuate the trapped people in Lake Edison and China Peak using night vision.”

According to Lieutenant Brandon Purcell from Fresno Sheriff’s Office, people trapped were currently safe in temporary areas of refuge.  Over the weekend, military helicopters rescued more than 200 people trapped by the fire near Mammoth Pool Reservoir. The fire department said 976 personnel were battling the blaze, which had continued to grow “under extreme conditions.”

The record two million acres destroyed was hit as the wildfire season still has roughly two months to go in the most populous US state and as thousands of firefighters were battling flames during a scorching heatwave. 

Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff said, “In the past 33 years we have not seen a single year go over two million acres until this year. This is definitely record-breaking and we have not even come close to the end of fire season yet.”

According to Cal Fire figures, at least seven people have died as a result of this year’s fires and some 3,800 structures have been damaged. 

The last time the number of acres burned got close to two million was in 2018, the same year as the devastating Camp Fire, when a little more than 1.9 million acres (769,000 hectares) went up in flames.