wildfires

Calmer winds helped firefighters gain ground Saturday against fires that have destroyed homes and raced through nearly 20,000 acres of northern and eastern San Diego County brush land, while authorities have charged a man for adding fuel to one of the nearly dozen blazes.

More than 72,600 wildfires are reported in the U.S. each year and humans are the primary cause, starting roughly six times more blazes than lightning strikes in a given year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which tracked fire causes between 2001 and 2013.

Officials say hundreds of new evacuation orders have been issued for the Southern California city of San Marcos where a wildfire continues burning out of control.

Officials say a massive wildfire burning near Yosemite National Park grew overnight, but they are still making progress in containing it.

Thousands of acres in New Mexico have been scarred by a pair of wildfires that spurred evacuation calls for dozens of homes and shut down a state highway.

The warm, windy weather means the threat of wildfires remains in New Jersey as several brush fires burn off the New Jersey Turnpike in the Meadowlands.

Despite the slowest start to a wildfire season in a decade, the head of the U.S. Forest Service says his agency is preparing for another busy year, but with fewer firefighters.

The mayor of Colorado Springs says a raging wildfire has destroyed an estimated 346 homes, making the blaze the most destructive in state history.

Authorities are ramping up the fight against large wildfires burning out of control in northern Colorado and southern New Mexico.

The New Jersey Departments of Banking and Insurance (DOBI), Community Affairs (DCA) and Environmental Protection (DEP) are reminding Jersey homeowners who live in or near forests to carefully maintain and review their insurance coverage, to maintain their properties with wildfire protection in mind and take common sense precautions while enjoying the outdoors during wildfire season.