Before the 2021 fire season in the western U.S. began, experts knew it was going to be bad . Now, people across the country are seeing just “how bad,” as smoke from the fires has spread all the way to the East Coast. Common wisdom says where there’s smoke, there’s fire. However, in this case, those enormous western wildfires are thousands of miles away. Fires were expected in many western states due to historically bad drought conditions and record high temperatures. There are 78 active large western wildfires across 13 states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center . In total, more than 1.3 million acres have burned. The agency is predicting above average fire potential for large areas of the West until September. The Bootleg Fire Right now, the largest fire burning is southern Oregon’s Bootleg Fire. Started by a lightning strike, the fire is the fourth largest in Oregon history at more than 395,000 acres. In terms of size, that’s an area larger than Los Angeles.