A total of 367 fires have ignited between the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles this summer, forcing an unknown number of evacuations. Officials said 26 of them are considered major, including the LNU Lightning Complex and the SCU Lightning Complex fires, which comprise several individual blazes and are burning in 10 counties.
Thousands of people remained under evacuation orders in regions around the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday as wildfires blazed across the state amid a blistering heat wave now in its second week. Much of California is enduring a sweltering late summer heat wave that has broken several record highs in recent days, according to Weather.com.
According to a California fire and map tracker published by the San Francisco Chronicle, a total of 449,384 acres throughout the state are ablaze.
The map shows that only three out of the 18 fires being tracked are nearly contained. Of all the wildfires currently reported in the state, the LNU Lightning Complex blaze in Northern California is the largest, at 124,100 acres, according to Cal Fire. None of the fire was contained as of late Wednesday night.
The LNU Lightning Complex has been active for 2 days and burned 131,000 acres. As of Thursday, it was 0% contained. A group of 20 separate fires burning near San Jose has been named the SCU Lightning Complex Fire.
On Thursday, 137,475 acres had been burned and the flames were 5% contained. SCU Lightning Complex threatens more than 1,400 structures, according to the SCU branch of CalFire.
Widespread elevated and critical fire weather conditions are expected Thursday across central California and the Great Basin, the National Weather Service said. The hot, dry conditions are expected to continue at least into the weekend.
This is an ongoing tragic event and will be updated accordingly.
