“The heat wave and lightning-sparked barrage of California wildfires continues to escalate, with one of the blazes now ranking as the second-largest fire in state history, while another also occupy a spot in the top 5. The fires have claimed hundreds of homes and threaten tens of thousands more, forcing more than 100,000 to flee amid a coronavirus pandemic that makes evacuation decisions fraught with challenges” reports the Washington Post.

“Although firefighters have seen a letup in the high winds and heat that plagued central and northern California for much of the week, another round of thunderstorms that will deliver little rain but lightning discharges that could start even more blazes is anticipated as early as Sunday and lasting through Tuesday. The fires have been blamed for at least six fatalities. In seven days, the California blazes have charred nearly a million acres, more than tripling the area burned during a typical fire season (a little over 300,000 acres). The area of land burned is larger than Rhode Island. The largest blaze in the state is known as the LNU Lightning Complex, had spread to a staggering 314,207 acres across Napa, Lake, Solano, and Sonoma Counties by Saturday morning. It was only 15 percent contained, and firefighters report that “extreme fire behavior” is making battling the blaze difficult. The size of the blaze puts it behind only the Mendocino Complex fire of 2018, which burned about 459,000 acres, on the state’s list of largest fires on record since 1932.”