(CNN) While people in the West are suffering through record-breaking heat, wildfires are ravaging many areas, especially in California, and red-flag warnings have been issued from the Northwest into the Rockies. There were at least 77 large complexes of wildfires burning in 15 states across the country as of Tuesday evening -- almost a third of them in California, according to the National Interagency Fire CenterThe fires have burned at least 649,054 acres in the 14 states where fires are still spreading, according to the NIFC. Some 45 million people remain under some sort of heat warning or advisories, and no reprieve from the record heat in the West is expected until the weekend. Most of California and some surrounding areas are under an excessive heat warning from the National Weather Service.

Source: CNN August 20, 2020 01:52 UTC