AUBURN, Calif. - Cal Fire is warning of what may be a very long and very difficult fire season ahead.

"Over the next couple of months almost all of Northern California's gonna be at an above average potential for large and damaging wildfires," said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant.

The state has already seen 950 fires, triple the number in an average year. And the state is in the grip of the worst drought in recorded history.

"A lot of the green hillsides up and down the state are really just masking the dead grass that's been sitting there all winter long," Berlant points out.

At the Cal Fire station in Auburn, seasonal firefighters have been in place since the end of January, nearly three months earlier than usual.

VALLEY SPRINGS, CA - Authorities search for a man wanted in connection to the death of a 9-year-old girl.

A homicide investigation is underway by the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's Office after a young girl was killed at a home on Rippon Road, the sheriff's office said.

Sheriff deputies responded to the home after a 12-year-old boy called his parents saying there was an intruder in the home. The parents called 911 and deputies responded to the call.

The boy, who was home alone with his 9-year-old sister, tells investigators that he then went into another room in the home where he discovered his sister with severe injuries.

The girl was transported to a hospital where she later died.  The boy was not injured.

Investigators have not released the type of injuries the girl sustained, but do say that it does not appear that she was shot.