A cluster of lightning-sparked wildfires raged across portions of two Northern California counties on Wednesday, forcing widespread evacuations and engulfing part of an historic Gold Rush mining town once home to thousands of Chinese immigrants.

Wind-whipped flames from nearly two dozen separate blazes have scorched more than 13,000 acres of sun-baked dry grass, brush and timber since a lightning storm ignited the fires on Tuesday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The remote village of Chinese Camp, a town of fewer than 100 residents on the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California‘s Gold Country region, was particularly hard hit by one of the fires.

Dozens of Homes, Two Historic Buildings Destroyed in Chinese Camp

According to a Reuters journalist on the scene, the blaze destroyed dozens of homes in and around Chinese Camp, a remnant of the Gold Rush-era mining community first settled by thousands of Chinese laborers in the mid-19th century.

Flames also gutted two historic buildings, including an old stage coach stop, and scorched a hilltop cemetery but left the adjacent church established in 1854 unscathed, CalFire spokesperson Jaime Williams said.

Three other landmark buildings, the Chinese Camp Store and Tavern, and the town’s post office and its pagoda-style public school, also survived the fire, she said.

The entire town and several other communities in Tuolumne County and neighboring Calaveras County remained under evacuation orders as a firefighting force of more than 600 personnel battled to contain the blazes, CalFire said.

The full extent of property losses and evacuations had yet to be determined, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

(Reporting by Tracy Barbutes in Chinese Camp, California; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Jamie Freed)