Two clusters of wildfires ringing the San Francisco Bay Area exploded in size Friday night to become the second and third largest in recorded state history, as firefighters struggled to contain them. One complex of fires east of San Jose and another north of San Francisco have each spread to around 300,000 acres, fire officials said. Across the state, a blitz of about 12,000 lightning strikes since Aug. 15 have sparked nearly two dozen major fires, scorching 915,000 acres—a territory about the size of Rhode Island. Gavin Newsom said, enabling federal assistance to state and local governments funding emergency response and recovery efforts. More than 13,700 firefighters drawn from state, local and federal agencies are battling the blazes, which have caused at least five deaths and forced more than 115,000 people to evacuate their homes, according to state fire officials.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 22, 2020 19:52 UTC