Live Updates of the California Wildfires

The fires have torched more than 900,000 acres.

Firefighters are struggling to get a handle on the 560 wildfires that are spreading rapidly throughout California, torching more than 900,000 acres of land and forcing more than 119,000 people to flee their homes.

Despite the 12,000 firefighters currently battling the blazes, about a dozen major fires continue to grow, particularly in Northern California, where two fire groupings are now some of the largest in the state’s history. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state was “putting everything we have” into the firefight, but that it was not enough, and that he had asked for help from other states — including on the East Coast — and from Australia.

Even as the fires grow further, forecasters with the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office warned that there could be more dry thunderstorms this weekend, potentially bringing a dangerous combination of lightning and wind to an already-burning region. Many of the current fires were ignited during an extraordinary period of more than 12,000 lightning strikes last weekend, what fire officials have called a “lightning siege.”