California fires cover 400,000 hectares amid fears of new spread

Firefighters from Australia and Canada answer call for help as more lightning strikes and gusts are forecast

Firefighters on Sunday battled some of the largest fires in California's history, which have forced tens of thousands from their homes and burnt 400,000 hectares.

More lightning strikes and gusty winds are forecast for the week ahead.

Thousands of lightning strikes have hit the state in the past week, igniting fires that left smoke blanketing the region.

California's fire season, normally from August to November, has had a fearsome start as exhausted firefighters are already struggling to keep up with the far-flung blazes.

The National Weather Service said dry thunderstorms could spark more wildfires, and that "the western US and Great Plains are shrouded under a vast area of smoke".

It issued red-flag warnings covering large areas of northern and central California.

These conditions "could cause erratic winds, extreme fire behaviour within the existing fires, and have a potential for new fires to start", the CalFire website said.

Firefighters are stretched so thin that the state has turned down some local officials' requests for help with equipment or personnel, forcing them to rely on volunteers and local agencies, the Los Angeles Times  reported.

About 2,600 firefighters are now tackling the two largest blazes, out of about 14,000 battling nearly two dozen major fires, CalFire spokesman Jeremy Rahn said.

California has pleaded for outside help and several western states, the federal government and the governments of Canada and Australia have responded.

"Many of these firefighters have been on the lines for 72 hours and everybody is running on fumes," Jim Wood of the Healdsburg district in Sonoma told the Los Angeles Times.

"Our first responders are working to the ragged edge of everything they have."

The disparate force battling the many blazes now includes 2,400 fire engines, 60 of them from other states, with several hundred more requested, CalFire said.

More than 200 aircraft, including 95 planes, are taking part in what CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant called "a significant air force", dropping loads of water, monitoring the spread of flames or ferrying firefighters and equipment.

About 200 National Guardsmen have also been mobilised to help, Mr Berlant said.

Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday posted a dramatic photograph of clouds of smoke rising from fires.

An airplane drops fire retardant over homes in the Spanish Flat area of Napa, California as flames rage through on August 18, 2020. AFP

A fire vehicle passes burning trees on Pleasants Valley Rd. near Winters, California. AP

Flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires burn around Lake Berryessa in unincorporated Napa County on Wednesday, August 19, 2020. Fire crews across the region scrambled to contain dozens of wildfires sparked by lightning strikes. AP Photo

The Ranch Fire burns over a residential area. AP

Heatwave conditions were making difficult work for fire crews battling brush fires and wildfires across Southern California. AP

The Ranch Fire burns on a hillside over a residential neighborhood, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in Azusa, California. AP

A cyclist rides along a trail as the ranch fire burns in California. AP

"This is from today," Mr Newsom said. "And is just a small part of the nearly 600 fires we are battling this week."

He said on Saturday that the White House had granted a request for a presidential disaster declaration to aid the state's response.

Mr Newsom tweeted images of orange roadsides thick with smoke, and sparks flying as trees burned ferociously.

Wineries in the famed Napa and Sonoma regions, which are still reeling from blazes in recent years, are under threat.

The two largest blazes – the SCU Lightning Complex to the south of the San Francisco Bay area and the LNU Lightning Complex to the north – have burnt about 680,000 acres and destroyed more than 850 buildings.

They are the second and third largest fires in California history, with the SCU fire only 10 per cent contained and the LNU fire 17 per cent.

Five deaths have been linked to the latest flare-ups, with four bodies recovered on Thursday, including three from a burnt house in a rural area of Napa County.

Many residents have refused evacuation orders.

"At least if we're here, we know exactly what's going on," Napa resident John Newman, 68, told the San Francisco Chronicle as he sat in a lawn chair in his driveway.

"The family is worried but it's a little different if you're here first-hand."

Nature reserves were also ravaged. The Big Basin Redwoods State Park said that some of its historic buildings had been destroyed by flames.

The park, where giant redwood trees of far more than 500 years old can be found, was "extensively damaged".

About 119,000 people have been moved to safety, with many struggling to find shelter and hesitating to go to centres set up by authorities because of coronavirus risks.

In some counties south of San Francisco, they opted to sleep in trailers along the Pacific Ocean as they fled nearby fires, while tourists were urged to leave to free up accommodation.

California has already been struggling more than most US states with the coronavirus.

The combination of the disease and the thick smoke from wildfires has caused what the Chronicle  called "a respiratory nightmare".

A headline in the paper asked, "What masks can protect you from both smoke and Covid-19?"