Thomas Fire now the fifth largest in modern California history
The Thomas Fire, which started in Ventura County a week ago, grew by 500 acres overnight to 230,500 acres on Monday, as firefighters worked to prevent the relentless blaze from spreading to multimillion dollar homes in posh neighborhoods of Santa Barbara County. The inferno, now the fifth largest in modern state history, was only 15 percent contained as it burned through extremely dry vegetation and treacherous terrain, causing thousands of new evacuations over the weekend. “This thing’s a monster,” Firefighter Jason Hodge of the Ventura County Fire Department said Monday morning. “Right now, the thing that’s really unique about this fire is just the sheer width of it.