A wildfire that erupted Friday in rural California has now scorched more than 17,000 acres, and could threaten a network of thousands of marijuana micro farms as it continues to spread during the Pacific Northwest's deadly heatwave.
The so-called Lava Fire began last Friday when a lightning strike hit a tree and sparked a small fire in a remote area of an old lava flow east of the city of Weed, according to the Sacramento Bee.
More than 470 firefighters on the ground and in the air and 800 Forest Service personnel are continuing to battle the Lava Fire, which has injured two firefighters.
The area has been under a red-flag warning for fires due to high winds and low humidity, as temperatures in the Pacific Northwest reach 110-degrees.
The Lava Fire has grown to cover 17,591 acres of land in northern California, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Department reports, and is just 19 percent contained as it inches closer to to the massive network of marijuana farms in Lake Shastina and Mount Shasta Vista subdivision.
Siskiyou County has banned large-scale marijuana cultivation, but thousands of pot greenhouses have sprung up since the drug was legalized in the state.
The network of micro-farms is mostly run by Hmong and Chinese families, and police efforts to shut them down have been countered with claims of racial discrimination.
There are now thousands of people tending to somewhere between 5,000 to 6,000 greenhouses in the area, the Bee reports.
At least 8,000 people have been evacuated from the area as of Monday afternoon, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Two other fires have popped up nearby, including the Tenant Fire and the Beswick Fire, though they are not as large as the Lava Fire.
The Lava Fire has spread to more than 17,000 acres and threatens a huge network of marijuana greenhouses in Lake Shastina
The heatwave continued on Thursday, with the National Weather Service warning residents of heat-related illnesses as the high temperatures mix with the smoke from the fires
The Juniper Motel, an abandoned business, burns in the Tennant Fire near the city of Weed
Smoke poured into the sky from the slopes of Mt. Shasta looking east from Highway 97
A US Forest Service forest technician burns off fuel ahead of a portion of the Lava Fire
A truck is seen burning in the Tennant Fire on Tuesday as the fire continued to spread
The historic scorching temperatures are the result of a high-pressure jet stream known as a 'heat dome,' which is essentially trapping the hot weather in place. The high temperatures have caused hundreds of deaths in Canada in the last five days.
Federal officials say California's fire season is already outpacing last year's - which was the worst on record.
On Monday, police shot and killed a man they say opened fire on them when trying to drive through a wildfire evacuation zone to get to one of the marijuana farms.
'They made contact with the driver. And at some point, the driver exhibited a firearm, a handgun, and pointed it at the officers,' Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue told the Bee. 'Based upon preliminary information, it appears that there might have been a couple rounds fired from the suspect´s firearm.'
The evacuation orders remained in effect as of Tuesday, as the Lava Fire burned brush and timber in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
'We do no know what structures have burned down and the status of many areas,' the sheriff's office told USA Today.
The area has only recently recovered from the 2014 Boles fire, according to the Sacramento Bee, which burned more than 150 homes and buildings in Weed,
