A small wildfire was reported in the early afternoon on Wednesday Oct. 8 in Placer County, California. That original fire has now spread into a series of five uncontrollable wildfires that are causing mass chaos and otherwise endangering the welfare of the public.

California fire officials reported that as of Wednesday night the series of fires, collectively dubbed the Applegate Fire, had spread to over 300 acres. The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services issued an official statement on the blaze, which at the time was threatening more than 200 structures in the communities of Applegate, Heather Glen, Weimer and Twin Pines.

According to the Office of Emergency Services, 800 residents have already been forced to evacuate their homes and local news outlets are reporting that several homes have already been destroyed, burned entirely beyond repair (see photos in slideshow above).

YubaNet.com has been reporting on the timeline of events related to the fire, as those events occurred throughout the day on Wednesday, and CAL FIRE has listed the most up-to-date log of incident information on its website. As of CAL FIRE's most recent update, the fire was reported as having consumed 380 acres of land and the blaze was only at 10 percent containment.

Starting from when the fire was first reported at approximately 1:30 p.m. PST on Wednesday, fire officials counted a total of five separate as they began merging together. Two of them were already reported to be presenting serious threats to nearby structures.

As firefighters began to attack the heady blaze they found themselves overwhelmed and had to request five additional fire engines, two water tenders and several more hand crews to assist. Within half an hour three crews from a nearby community had responded to the fire, as it continued to spread.

Around that same time, county officials put into place mandatory evacuations for residents of Pinecone Peak, Hummingbird Hill and Highview Lane. An evacuation center was set up immediately at the Sierra Vista Community Center in Colfax to assist the first wave of evacuees, as reports of additional mandatory evacuation orders came in.

A little over an hour after the initial fire report, firefighters described the rate of fire spread as critical and crews from two additional neighboring communities were dispatched to help out.

In addition to the fire engines on the ground, multiple helicopters were being utilized for air strikes, one large air tanker had already arrived to drop water and fire retardant over the blaze and a very large air tanker (VLAT) was en route to the scene.

Soon thereafter, extreme fire behavior was being reporting by those battling the blaze on the ground and a number of firefighters were forced to retreat to a safety zone for their own protection. Aircraft flying over the inferno, however, continued working to slow the progress of the fire.

Within two hours of the ignition of the blaze, the Placer County Sheriff's Office issued several more mandatory evacuation orders. They included: Easy Lane, Sun Valley Lane, Heather Glen Mobile Home Park, Weaver Hill Road, Sundance Place, Dundee Court, Douglas Drive, Dunvegan Drive, Heather Glen Drive, Hotchkss Drive, and Sinclair Court.

In response, the Red Cross opened another evacuation center, this one located at the Forest Hill Veterans Hall.

By 3:30 p.m., CAL FIRE reported that 80 structures were threatened by the still-growing fire. Officials revealed that the blaze had infinite potential to grow "exponentially" if firefighters couldn't get it "boxed in" by Wednesday evening.

By 4:00 p.m., six more large air tankers and five additional helicopters had been assigned to help fight the fire, which, by 4:20 p.m., was estimated to have grown to approximately 150 acres. At that time fire officials reported that progress was finally being made in slowing the rate of fire spread and the hope was that air resources would be successful in further cooling the fire.

At 4:30 p.m. several more evacuation orders were issued by Placer County officials. Among them: Ponderosa Way to State Park boundary, Bridge Trail Way, Bushy Ridge, Hidden Ridge, Cross Road and East Ridge.

By 4:45 p.m. the fire was estimated to be nearing 200 acres and reports were coming in of the fire making periodic extreme runs. Within a half hour officials reported that the new estimate of the size of the blaze was between 350 and 400 acres. Firefighters were ordered to keep structure protection as their number one priority.

Help from neighboring vicinities continued to pour in as the day went on. By 6:00 p.m. the following crews had been dispatched to assist: Nevada County Consolidated Fire Brush 89, Grass Valley Engine 2 as well as additional teams from Ophir Hill, Nevada City and Higgins. Off-duty firefighters joined in to help out by augmenting the staffing already in place. As of Wednesday evening there were 350 firefighters battling the blaze.

As the day drew toward a close, fire experts worked to coordinate a strategy to begin Thursday morning firefighting efforts. Included in the aircraft order for Thursday at 8:00 a.m. were one air attack, one lead plane, three tankers and four helicopters.

"This is just the initial order," a county representative told reporters.

Foraying back to those victimized by the Applegate Fire, the Red Cross opened up a third evacuation shelter at the request of Placer County. This shelter is located at the Auburn Veteran's Memorial Hall in Auburn.

To ensure the availability of vital resources needed to extinguish this fire, California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from FEMA. This grant enables local, county, state and tribal agencies to recover fire response-related costs. The federal grant was provided through the President's Disaster Relief Fund, according to the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

As firefighters gear up for Thursday's battle, law enforcement officials in California are actively investigating the cause of the fire, according to CAL FIRE.

"We don't know the cause, but any time we have multiple fires that started in the same area along the roadside, that tells us we probably have human activity," said Lynne Tolmachoff, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. "It does not necessarily point toward arson, but our investigators are working to determine that."

Be sure to tune in to LatinPost.com for updates on the Applegate Fire, which we will report to our readers as soon as officials make any new information available. 

For the latest news & updates, follow reporter Bary Alyssa Johnson on Twitter: @MissBary