By JANIE HAR
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California fire officials are cautiously optimistic after dodging a major lightning storm, but they are pleading with residents to stay out of evacuation zones and prepare for days away from home as three massive San Francisco Bay Area wildfires rage on, suffocating the region with smoky air.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week will be critical as more than 14,000 firefighters battle 17 major fire complexes, largely in Northern California where wildfires have sur…

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Firefighters make a stand in the backyard of a home in front of the advancing C.Z.U. Lightning Complex fire on Friday. California is seeing some of the worst first in the state’s history.
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed, close to a million acres of land have been scorched and at least six people have died in one of the worst series of wildfires in California’s history.
More than 13,700 firefighters are battling nearly two dozen major fires throughout the state…

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Six people have been killed and at least 43 injured, including some firefighters, in massive wildfires that have burned homes and forests in Northern California and devastated its oldest state park.
With more than 500 fires burning out of control Saturday in the state with no end in sight, Gov. Gavin Newsom called on Australia and Canada to send in reinforcements for the 12,000 local firefighters trying to contain the disaster.
An area the size of Rhode Island has already burned down in northe…

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