Nearly 30,000 people in northern California evacuated as raging wildfire spreads

Flames leap above a vehicle in Oroville as the Thompson fire burns. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

Thousands of homes are under threat from a raging wildfire that erupted in northern California on Tuesday, as the state simmers in a brutal and potentially historic heatwave.

Roughly 28,000 residents have been forced to evacuate as the Thompson fire quickly swept across more than 3,500 acres (1,416 hectares) near the city of Oroville, about an hour outside Sacramento, California’s capital.