California firefighters battled destructive new wildfires in wine country north of San Francisco Monday as strong winds fanned flames in the already badly scorched state.

The new fires erupted Sunday in the famed Napa-Sonoma wine region and in far Northern California’s Shasta County, forcing hasty evacuations of neighborhoods.

Flames engulfed the distinctive Chateau Boswell Winery north of St. Helena, The Black Rock Inn in the small community of St. Helena and multiple homes in the city of Santa Rosa, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Residents of a senior home were among those evacuated.

The Adventist Health St. Helena hospital suspended care and transferred all patients elsewhere, according to a statement on its website.

The wine country inferno began with the Glass Fire at 3:50 a.m. Sunday and two subsequent fires merged with it, burning 17 square miles (44 square kilometers) as of early Monday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. More than 8,500 homes and other buildings were threatened.

Various thinks about in later a long time have connected greater fierce blazes in America to worldwide warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas, particularly since climate alter has made California much drier. A drier California implies plants are more flammable. Evacuations were too requested in Shasta Province as the Zogg Fire spread over 23 square miles (59 square kilometers) . 

Homes are broadly scattered within the forested region, almost 10 miles (16 kilometers) southwest of the city of Redding in a locale burnt fair two a long time back by the gigantic and dangerous Carr Fire — scandalously recalled for creating a gigantic tornado-like fire whirl. The causes of the unused fires were beneath investigation. The fires ejected as a mammoth edge of tall weight settled over the West, creating capable blasts blowing from the insides toward the coast whereas cutting mugginess levels and raising temperatures, making vegetation prepared to burn.

During the weekend, Pacific Gas & Electric turned off electricity to targeted areas where the winds raised the potential for arcing or other power equipment damage that could spark new fires. The utility’s equipment has caused previous disasters, including the 2018 Camp Fire that devastated the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Paradise and killed 85 people.

So far this year, more than 8,100 California wildfires have scorched 5,780 square miles (14,970 square kilometers), destroyed more than 7,000 buildings and killed 26 people.

Most of the losses occurred after a frenzy of dry lightning strikes in mid-August ignited a massive outbreak of fires.

Fire worries were also developing Monday across Southern California although it was unclear how strong predicted Santa Ana winds would be. Heat and extreme dryness were expected to be problematic nonetheless.

Conditions were also hot, dry and windy in parts of Arizona, where the Sears Fire in Tonto National Forest north of Phoenix has grown to more than 14 square miles (36 square kilometers) since it erupted Friday afternoon. Authorities reported zero containment.