LOS ANGELES — The fire season here in the hot, dry West now lasts roughly 75 days longer than it did a decade ago, and nearly three dozen fires have been burning up and down California in the last two days, weeks before a normal season begins.

Firefighters are battling blazes that have forced more than 23,000 people from their homes, but even more worrisome are the dire predictions of the worst year yet.

With triple-digit temperatures in parts of California that have not seen significant rainfall for months, and winds blowing toward the coasts, huge portions of land are vulnerable to light up with even the smallest spark, officials said.

More than 11,000 acres had burned by Friday morning and at least one fire that had damaged structures was still not under control. Firefighters found a badly burned body in a transient camp in Carlsbad, a coastal city about 30 miles north of San Diego. City officials had no information about the person who died — apparently the first fatality of the fires. Police in Escondido, just north of San Diego, arrested a teenager and a young adult on Thursday on suspicion of trying to spark fires; fire officials could not confirm if the two were connected to the larger wildfires.