Highway 50 in El Dorado County was closed again early Thursday because of backfires being set in hopes of slowing the King Fire, which more than doubled overnight to 70,994 acres and was only 5 percent contained, authorities said.

The highway was shut down at midnight between Ice House and Sly Park, just hours after it had been reopened, as crews set fires to slow the blaze’s growth. Officials were to decide Thursday morning whether to reopen the heavily traveled trans-Sierra road.

The fire that began Saturday is threatening 2,000 homes in Pollock Pines east of Placerville. About 3,700 firefighters are battling the flames on the ground and by air.

The fire, the cause of which is under investigation, is one of the largest and most closely watched of 11 out-of-control blazes burning in California.

The state’s largest blaze this year is a collection of fires in the Klamath National Forest near the Oregon border called the Happy Camp Fire. On Wednesday, firefighters continued to gain on the 126,000-acre blaze and had it 68 percent contained.

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