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Firefighters scrambled Wednesday to tame a lightning-sparked wildfire in the Los Padres National Forest that already burned 16 homes and is moving closer to the scenic community of Big Sur, where it threatened another 500 residences.

Meantime, the hundreds of fires burning throughout Northern California caused air quality to reach unhealthy levels, prompting the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to issue a health advisory through Thursday.
 
To make matters worse, more dry lightning was expected toward the end of the week, although forecasters did not expect as severe an electrical storm as last weekend, when roughly 8,000 lightning strikes sparked nearly 850 fires in the region.

Monterey County

The Gallery Fire, which was only 3 percent contained Wednesday, had burned nearly 30 square miles — about 8,500 acres — near the central coast about a mile south of Big Sur in Monterey County, officials said.

"Unfortunately, this fire is in an area that is going to be very difficult to stop, and expectations are there won't be any stopping this fire any time soon," said Mark Savage, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Monterey County on Wednesday to assess the damage and said he has called in the National Guard to help fight the fires.

"The fact is that when you have that many fires and there are still 700 fires left all over the state of California you get stretched thin with the resources," Schwarzenegger said.

The state's largest fire, located about 20 miles east of the Big Sur fire in a more remote area of the Los Padres forest, also continued to vex firefighters Wednesday, having scorched more than 92 square miles and destroyed two homes.

The Indians Fire, sparked by an escaped campfire on June 8, was 71 percent contained.

The Monterey County fires have cost $33 million to fight so far.

Monterey sheriff's officials said mandatory evacuation orders were in place for both fires, but could not specify how many people were forced from their homes.

Solano & Napa Counties

To north, a fire outside of the Solano County city of Fairfield had burned more than 4,000 acres. Firefighters fully contained that fire Wednesday.

About 35 firefighters remained at the Wild Fire mopping up, said Cal Fire Division Chief Wayne Connor.

"They (residents) might see some puffs coming up from us burning some fuels near the line but that's all part of the mop-up,'' Connor said.

The blaze, which cost an estimated $690,000 to fight, ignited near Wild Horse Valley Road in Napa County on Saturday. It quickly spread through dry grass, oak trees and brush toward the area of Lake Madigan in Solano County.
 
Bay Area Air Quality Poor

Fire crews from Nevada and Oregon arrived to help California firefighters battle the hundreds of blazes that are darkening skies over the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Valley, causing public health officials to issue air-quality warnings.
 
"The wildfire smoke is definitely impacting local air quality," said Air District Communications Director Lisa Fasano. "We are recommending that the public limit their outdoor activities and pay attention to local weather forecasts to monitor conditions."

The Bay Area advisory was in effect for Solano, Contra Costa, Alameda, Sonoma and Marin counties.

"I just took off with the plane down from Los Angeles and, literally from Los Angeles all the way up here, there was smoke, so you can see that there's fire everywhere," Schwarzenegger noted at a news conference in Monterey County.

Butte County

The governor also stopped Wednesday in Butte County, where 27 lightning-sparked fires covering about 8 square miles were threatening 1,000 homes.

The blazes, which were only 5 percent contained, cropped up just as the county was recovering from a fire that charred 74 homes and 36 square miles earlier this month.

Schwarzenegger announced Wednesday that he allotted $20 million in emergency funds to help Butte County fight fire.
 
Santa Cruz County

Firefighters fully controlled the Trabing Fire, which burned about 630 acres and destroyed about 20 structures in Santa Cruz County over the course of four days.

Investigators from Cal Fire determined that vehicle exhaust — not lightning — distributed hot carbon particulate material onto roadside grass, igniting the fire.

The blaze started near Watsonville in the area of state Highway 1 and Buena Vista Drive. More than 600 firefighters had battled the flames.

Mendocino County

Areas hit the hardest by the weekend lightning storm also included Mendocino County, where 131 fires have burned more than 20 square miles and threatened about 500 homes, and the Shasta-Trinity Forest, where more than 150 fires have burned about 15.5 square miles and threatened 200 homes.

The storm struck California when the state was experiencing one of its driest years on record. Earlier this month, Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought and directed agencies to speed up water deliveries to drought-stricken areas.

More Lightning Strikes Expected

The next round of lightning forecast for later this week, however, could bring some moisture with it, said Dave Reynolds, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "We are certainly not as hot and dry as we were going into that event last weekend," he said.
 
Even before the lightning strikes though, California had already seen an unusually large number of destructive wildfires that had burned nearly 90,000 acres, compared with 42,000 acres during the same period last year, according to CalFire officials. The fire season typically does not peak until late summer or early fall.

"This doesn't bode well for the fire season," said Ken Clark, a meteorologist in Southern California with AccuWeather. "We're not even into the meat of the fire season at this point, and the brush is extremely dry. It's not going to get any better, it's going to get worse."

Savage said that even with reinforcements from other states, firefighters ran the risk of being exhausted or injured in the months ahead given the brutal, early start to the wildfire season.

"We are not even to July and we have a record number of fires going on," he said. "It could be a very long season for our firefighters. Just extend the football season by eight or 12 weeks. It's a physical test of your endurance, but it could mean more wear and tear on our firefighters."