More than ten thousand buildings and over one million acres destroyed in California forest fires

Wildfires continue to burn across California, and have killed seven people and destroyed at least 12,000 structures. There are 7,002 fires currently burning in California, according to a summary in The Guardian. 

Since 15 August, 1.2 million acres have burned in California from what Cal Fire is calling the August Lightning Siege. In total this year, 1.4 million acres have burned. In comparison, at this time last year, only 56,000 acres had burned so far.

Two wildfires in the San Francisco Bay Area – the LNU Lightning Complex Fire and the SCU Lightning Complex Fire – have now officially grown to the second-largest and third-largest fires in California history. 

Smoke from these “historic” wildfires has forced millions of Californians to stay indoors during a heat wave. There has been extremely unhealthy air quality throughout several regions, and the smoke is expected to spread across the country.

(Numbers were updated August 24th)

Cover Photo: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA -- Flames of the Simi Valley fire ravage a Southern California mountain side. This is one of many catastrophic fires that plauged Southern California. U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules pilots flew eight C-130 cargo airplanes and dropped 129,600 gallons of retardant on the Simi fire during 48 sorties and 32 flying hours as of Oct. 29. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Master Sgt. Dennis W. Goff)