The Loyalton Fire, just west of the Nevada state line, has burned almost 30,000 acres in two days and jumped highways 395 and 70 near Hallelujah Junction.

The fire was reported at 4:30 p.m. Friday along Staverville Road four miles east of Loyalton. On Saturday morning, it was listed at 2,300 acres and 5% containment; within 24 hours it had grown to 20,000 acres.

On Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service office in Reno tweeted an urgent warning of a fire tornado in Roberts Canyon: “extremely dangerous fire behavior … rotating columns and potential for fire whirls.”

At midmorning Sunday, an 8-mile stretch of Highway 70 was closed, and the Lassen County sheriff’s office issued evacuation orders for the north edge of the fire. By late afternoon, the highway had been reopened and those mandatory evacuations lifted, but residents were ordered to leave homes west of Highway 395 at the fire’s south edge.

A report from the Tahoe National Forest at 5 p.m. Sunday put the acreage burned at 29,829, or 46 square miles.

The fire zone is 25 miles north of Truckee, 18 miles northwest of Reno. Heavy smoke filled the Washoe Valley on Sunday.