This is intercepted.

Today, the largest single wildfire in California history on the doorstep of more historic small towns.

The Dixie Fire in Northern California raging right into the record books.

The state's third largest wildfire in history now with little signs of slowing down.

I'm Ali Radhib, senior editor with the intercept.

Last summer, Northern California's Dixie Fire had already been burning for a month when the flames approached the remote town of Susanville.

Residents were preparing to evacuate.

Fire officials are telling the communities of old station and people living north of highway 44 to leave their homes.

30-mile-and-hour winds are pushing the Dixie Fire toward the town of Susanville.

18,000 people live there, including inmates at two state prisons.

The firehood had already been wrecking havoc on the main business in town.

Susanville is home to two state prisons, each with capacities and thousands.

The wildfire had taken out power lines supplying the prisons, with the California Correctional Center's CRD particularly hard hit.

The facilities backup generator had failed.

People incarcerated there had been without lights for nearly a month.

Desperation and tension were rising.

They said it was traumatizing.

It was hard to breathe. It was hard to see.

There were no lights in the cells. No TV. No cooking. No personal fans.

No time in the communal day room. So nothing to distract from this really scary situation.

For hours-long periods, the toilets and ventilation would stop working entirely.

And at times they would hear someone being taken to medical because of the smoke combined with anxiety.

...