California wildfires

Dry vegetation and high winds combine again in a potentially dangerous Southern California fire. But firefighters could get help from an approaching rainstorm.

A year after the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history devastated Paradise, the state grapples with tough questions about how to rebuild in the era of worsening wildfires.

Democrat Gavin Newsom has been critical of the state's largest utility, PG&E, in the face of planned power outages that left 2 million customers without electricity.

Californians have been evacuated multiple times in recent years owing to smoke, fires, floods and power outages. Now people are reconsidering whether the state is the dream they had hoped for.

Firefighters now have Sonoma County's Kincade Fire 30% contained. But high winds are threatening to spread flames in both northern and southern parts of the state.

October marks not only fire season in California, but also the peak of the grape harvest. In areas not imminently threatened, some workers labor through heat and smoke to save harvests and paychecks.

The Kincade Fire has burned more than 75,000 acres in Northern California, while another blaze is 5% contained in Los Angeles. Gusty conditions will make the job even tougher for firefighters.

As fires blaze across the state, California firefighters have called in some of the biggest air tankers for help. The giant jets are dumping a fire retardant, Phos-Chek, on the flames.

The Getty wildfire erupted overnight, partially closing I-405 — the nation's busiest freeway. But that's not California's only worry, as the Kincade Fire continues to menace Sonoma County.

The deal, which a bankruptcy court must approve, covers most of the claims from the Camp Fire in 2018 and Northern California wine country fires in 2017. Insurance companies had sought $20 billion.

Warm temperatures have Californians again bracing for wildfires. But to better prepare, the residents of Ventura say they need a clearer picture of what went wrong in the destructive 2017 Thomas Fire.

The utility giant had already acknowledged that the fire investigation would likely find its equipment responsible for the Camp Fire in 2018.