Dead wildfires are destroying the California landscape as hot temperatures from the flames. President Donald Trump declared the fires a major disaster, to free up funds for those affected by the destruction.
The fires have killed six people and burned nearly 700 buildings since its inception after an earlier lightning storm last week.
The California Department of State Forest Management and Fire Protection (CalFire) said together that the fires burned nearly a million acres.
CalFire said: “Extreme fire behavior with short and long range spotting continues to challenge arson efforts.
“Fires continue to run in multiple directions and affect multiple communities.”
Read more: Vacaville Fire Evacuation Map: Where’s California Fire?
Nearly 14,000 firefighters are deployed to fight the blaze, but containment of the largest remains low.
Dirt and ash has for days from the northern part of California a day low, driven miles and visibly away from several states.
What is the biggest fire that is burning right now?
The largest blaze is the LNU Lightning Complex, which started as several smaller fires and later fused into one enormous mass of flames.
Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said in a newsletter on Sunday that the LNU complex burned over about 340,000 acres of Napa, Sonoma, Lake, Yolo and Solano counties.
The LNU complex fire is now the second largest wildfire on record in the state.
As of Sunday afternoon, the devastating blow was only 17 percent contained.
Mr. Berlant said in the south that the SCU Lightning Complex was almost as large, at 339,000 acres, and contained only 10 percent.
He added more dry thunderstorms were forecast until Tuesday and so-called red flag warnings were issued over much of northern and central California.
This is thanks to a record-breaking heat wave that the state has been battling for more than a week.
The heat wave is caused by a dome of atmospheric high pressure over the American Southwest.
Meteorologists say that this same high-pressure reef has also been flooded with moisture from remnants of a now widespread tropical storm off the coast of Mexico,
This has created conditions perfect for thunderstorms in much of California.
Most of the storms’ subsidence evaporated before reaching the ground, leaving behind dry lightning streaks that contributed to a fleeting wildfire season.
The American Lung Association has warned that the coronavirus pandemic has increased health risks due to dirty air and extreme heat.
Afif El-Hassan, a spokeswoman for the Physicians for the Lung Association, said that renting smoke and ashes could aggravate the weakened lungs of people with COVID-19.
