"It's not just a fire, it's a monster," describes an evacuee at a shelter in Weed, California, as firefighters prepare to battle a wildfire sweeping through the US state. The McKinney fire burning in the Klamath National Forest near the border with Oregon is California's largest wildfire so far this year -- though it remains much smaller than last year's Dixie Fire, which burned nearly one million acres. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES