California’s largest wildfire so far this year steadily expanded overnight after exploding in size over the weekend and forcing thousands of people to evacuate homes in remote areas just west of Yosemite National Park, officials said on Monday.

Fuelled by extreme heat and tinder-dry forests and underbrush, the Oak Fire had consumed 16,791 acres by Monday morning, an increase of 1,200 acres overnight, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

The fire, now more than half the size of Paris, was 10 per cent contained as it moved east near the town of Mariposa Pines. It was still more than 16km from Yosemite, famed for its giant, ancient sequoia trees, which had been threatened this month by a separate fire that is now 80 per cent contained.

“In certain areas of the fire perimeter there was minimal fire behaviuor last night. In other parts of the fire it remained active, especially in the timber due to high tree mortality,” said Jonathan Pierce, a Cal Fire spokesman.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation.

Since beginning on Friday, the fire had chased more than 3,700 people from their homes, including Wes Smith, a Mariposa County Sheriff Department officer and his wife Jane. The couple lost their home of 37 years in the blaze, their son Nick wrote on a GoFundMe page. “It is devastating to lose everything literally in the blink of an eye without notice,” he wrote. Reuters