Flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires leap above Butts Canyon Road on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020, in unincorporated Lake County, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

SAN FRANCISCO - 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 surrounded the city of San Francisco on three sides, singeing coastal redwoods that have never been burned. The wildfires, all caused by lightning, have been burning for a week.

“We are dealing with different climate conditions that are precipitating in fires the likes we haven’t seen in modern recorded history,” he said Monday.

A warning about dry lightning and winds that could have sparked more fires was lifted for the San Francisco Bay Area on Monday morning, a huge relief to fire commanders who said the weather was aiding their efforts as firefighters pour in from out of state. Temperatures are expected to be hot again this week.

At an evening news conference, officials said progress has been made against a huge fire in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties with the help of rain Sunday evening and calmer weather Monday.

“With the clear air, we were able to fly a lot more aircraft," said Mark Brunton, operations chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, of Cal Fire.

Helicopters dropped 200000 gallons (over 757,082 litres) of water on the blaze, he said, calling it “the best day yet."

Fire lines on the fire's southern border appeared to be holding, he said.

But officials warned the danger was far from over and called the fires complex and large. They admonished residents to stay out of evacuated areas and warned looters they'll be arrested.

“It is highly dangerous in there still,” Jonathan Cox, a Cal Fire deputy fire chief, said of the blaze north of Santa Cruz. “We have bridges that have failed, old wooden bridges that have failed that may not appear failed" to drivers.

Not knowing whether her home is still standing is the hardest part, says Barbara Brandt, a Boulder Creek resident who fled the Santa Cruz area fire Tuesday night.

“The last few days have been a roller coaster,” she said. “You get conflicting reports. You don’t know what your life is going to be like. We don’t know when we can go back, but we know it’s not going to be for a long time.”

When Brandt evacuated with her 94-year-old father, they figured the order was just a precaution. It was smoky, but not the massive complex of fires it is now. Her cats weren’t inside so she left without them, thinking they’d be back soon.

She went back Wednesday to put her cats in the house and feed her chickens. On Thursday, she returned yet again — this time to grab the cats.

North of San Francisco in wine country, Tim Ireland, 48, and Sherri Johnston, 47, were heading back to their destroyed Healdsburg home in Sonoma County to look for one of their dogs. The dog refused to get into the car when they fled.

“We only got out with a car full of clothes, firearms, safe, all our electronic devices, one dog, and two cats," he said.

California has had more than 13,000 lightning strikes since Aug. 15, sparking more than 600 wildfires statewide that have burned over 1,875 square miles (4,856 square kilometres), said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director with Cal Fire.

The burn area is bigger than Rhode Island and not quite the size of Delaware.

More than 1,200 buildings have been destroyed. The number is bound to increase as residents are allowed back into neighbourhoods and inspectors get a better look.

Another body was found Sunday from that wildfire, bringing the death count from the blazes to seven. Santa Cruz authorities said Tad Jones, 73, was found in Last Chance, a remote area. He was found on a trail near his van. Police had to use a helicopter to reach the area of roughly 40 homes at the end of a windy, steep dirt road north of Santa Cruz.

Among the victims was 70-year-old Mary Hintemeyer, of the city of Winters, her boyfriend Leo McDermott, and his son, Tom, said Hintemeyer's son, Robert McNeal.

McNeal told KPIX-TV that he lost contact with his mother Tuesday night as the fires sped up. He said his mother had tried to go into town earlier that day but turned back at a roadblock where authorities said if she went through she wouldn’t be allowed back. She returned home to get her boyfriend, who was in a wheelchair.

Authorities found their remains among the ruins on the Napa County property Wednesday, he said.

“Just get out, don’t wait,” McNeal told the TV station, urging people to follow evacuation orders. “If you think it’s going to be too much to get your sprinklers on before you get out of there, forget those too. Forget it. Get out. Just get out. It ain’t worth it.”

A utility worker found unresponsive in his vehicle in Solano County while assisting fire crews also died last week, but authorities have not yet released a cause of death.

Berlant, with Cal Fire, said about 170,000 people remain evacuated after about 50,000 were allowed back into their homes starting Sunday.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Chris Clark said several people were arrested, including a man who had $5,000 and some items in his car, and a woman, not a local, “seen walking around with a backpack" in a closed area.

The governor on Monday called reports of looting “repugnant" and applauded prosecutors' tough stance.

The wine country fire north of San Francisco and another southeast of the city burning in seven counties grew within a week to be two of the three largest fires in state history, each scorching about 550 square miles (1,425 square kilometres).

The wine country fire has been the most deadly and destructive blaze, accounting for five deaths and destroying more than 900 buildings. It is 25% contained.

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Associated Press writers John Antczak and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco and Aron Ranen in Healdsburg contributed to this report.

News from © The Associated Press, 2020