NewNews

This week, California's Doe Fire became the largest blaze in state history. The fire has burned more than 491, 000 acres, or about 768 square miles, across multiple counties in northern California. It's part of the more than 746, 000-acre August Complex (the term for a collection of fires), which began as 37 different fires in the Mendocino National Forest on August 17, after lightning sparked hundreds of blazes across California. The complex has since consolidated into a few large fires, including the Doe Fire and the Elkhorn Fire, which is at least 255, 309 acres. If the Doe Fire were a US city, it would be the second largest in the country by area – behind only Anchorage, Alaska. The fire that previously ranked as California's biggest, the Mendocino Complex fire, burned about 459, 000 acres in 2018. The third- and fourth-biggest fires in California history are also burning right now: the SCU Lightning Complex and the LNU Lightning Complex Fires. Those have burned about 397, 000 and 363, 000 acres respectively since they started in August, and are 98 and 95% contained. Flames from the LNU Lightning Complex Fire burn in Napa County, California, on August 18, 2020. Noah Berger/APTogether, that means three of the four largest fires in California history are burning at once. All told, more than 3. 1 million acres have burned in California in the 2020 season so far – vastly eclipsing the previous record of 1. 9 million acres from 2018. And the time of year when the state usually faces the highest fire risk, late September, is still to come.''The sheer amount of fire on the landscape is surreal, and no one I have talked to can remember anything like it, '' Nick Nauslar, a meteorologist with the National Interagency Fire Center, told the Washington Post. Another huge fire currently raging in the state, the North Complex Fire, has burned more 247, 000 acres in and around Butte County, destroyed 2, 000 structures, and killed 10 people. Sixteen people are still missing.

All data is taken from the source: http://insider.com
Article Link: https://www.insider.com/california-fires-biggest-in-history-august-complex-fire-2020-9