Crews in California battle some of the largest blazes in state history
More than 13,700 firefighters were on the frontlines of wildfires raging across California on Saturday, battling some of the largest blazes in the state's history.
Firefighters and aircraft from 10 states began arriving on Friday to help in the fight against the fires, which have killed at least five people. 100,000 people across the state were under orders to evacuate.
Hundreds of blazes are burning, including many that are small and remote. The bulk of damage was from three clusters that were ravaging areas in wine country and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Those complexes, consisting of dozens of fires, exploded in size on Friday. Together they scorched at least 991 square miles and destroyed more than 500 homes and other buildings, fire officials said.
Two Bay Area clusters, the LNU Lightning Complex and the SCU Lightning Complex, became the second- and third-largest wildfires in recent state history by size, according to Cal Fire records. The third blaze, the CZU Lightning Complex, is in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.
The fires were sparked by lightning from unsettled weather earlier in the week. Fire officials said Saturday there have been nearly 12,000 lightning strikes since a "lightning siege" started last weekend, with 100 of them happening just yesterday.
"During this time-period, there have been more than 585 new wildfires, which have burned nearly a million acres," Cal Fire, the state's fire agency, said in a statement.
The National Weather Service issued a fire weather watch from Sunday morning into Tuesday for the entire Bay Area and central coast. Forecasters said there was a chance of thunderstorms bringing more lightning and erratic gusts.
By Friday, Cal Fire had called out 96% of its available fire engines. But reinforcements began to arrive. The number of personnel assigned to the LNU complex, in the heart of wine country north of San Francisco, more than doubled from 580 to over 1,400 Friday and nearly 200 fire engines were on the scene, fire officials said.
That could help crews make further progress against the sprawling fire. Most evacuations for the town of Vacaville were lifted Friday. The fire threat there was reduced after reaching the edges of town.
"I feel like we're up on our feet, standing straight and actually moving a little bit forward," Sean Kavanaugh, Cal Fire incident commander, said Friday.
However, the number of large fires was "staggering" and had put "tremendous strain" on firefighting resources throughout the Western states, he said.
Governor Gavin Newsom said 10 states were sending personnel and equipment. The governor also said he was reaching out to Canada and Australia for help. "We have more people but it's not enough," Newsom said.
With firefighting resources tight, homes in remote, hard-to-get-to places burned unattended. Cal Fire Chief Mark Brunton pleaded with residents to quit battling fires on their own, saying that just causes more problems for the professionals.
Firefighters are also up against COVID-19. Base camps look different this year, allowing crews to spread out and socially distance, CBS Sacramento reports.
"We're getting our temperatures checked, we're all wearing masks. It's a lot different. I was wondering how firefighting season was going to be and I'm getting first-hand how it is," said Captain Jesse Gomez with the Selma Fire Department.