Lightning-sparked wildfires swept across Northern California on Wednesday, scorching huge swaths of sun-parched land and leading to orders for thousands of people to evacuate, officials said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that firefighters were battling 367 known wildfires statewide — 23 of them major fires or complexes — and that there had been more than 10,800 lightning strikes over the previous 72 hours.
Wednesday morning, the pilot of a Bell UH-1H helicopter was killed in a crash while on a water-dropping mission at the Hills Fire around 9 miles south of Coalinga in the San Joaquin Valley, said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. The pilot worked for a private company contracted by the agency.
Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, northeast of the San Francisco Bay Area, Wednesday night ordered all non-essential personnel to leave due a large fire called the LNU Lightning Complex Fire, which has burned more than 124,000 acres and destroyed 105 structures.
MORE Lightning-sparked fires rage across Northern California as thousands are ordered to evacuate