Tens of thousands evacuated as fire bears down on US city

BREAKING: About 42,000 people ordered to evacuate as a fast-moving wildfire bears down on a US city near Reno, with strong winds and dry conditions fueling the blaze.

Forty two thousand people have been ordered out of their homes tonight. A fast moving wildfire is bearing down on a city near Reno, Nevada, and it's being driven by exactly the two things firefighters fear most, strong winds and bone dry ground.

You can see it here, flames on the hillside directly above a residential neighbourhood, houses still lit below as the fire closes in. That's how near this thing already is.

Reno sits right against the Sierra Nevada, and this is peak fire season in a region that's had almost no moisture. When the wind is pushing a blaze downhill toward streets full of homes, evacuation orders aren't a precaution, they're a race.

Right now the only number that matters is forty two thousand, the people who had to leave everything behind tonight and don't know what they'll come back to.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.