Dozens of fires continue to burn across Oregon, along with major blazes in California and Canada.

Some Oregon residents were cleared to return home Thursday after a thunderstorm dropped welcome rain but also potentially dangerous lightning on the biggest active blaze in the United States.

Evacuation orders were lifted Thursday for the city of Huntington, population 500, after a severe thunderstorm late Wednesday brought some rain and cooler temperatures to the nearly 403,200 acres burned by the Durkee Fire — the nation’s biggest — and another nearby blaze.

Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash called the rain a “godsend” and the Oregon State Fire Marshal said firefighters were set to “seize the opportunity” of better conditions to push back the fire on the Oregon-Idaho border that remained unpredictable and just 20% contained, according to the government website InciWeb.

Lightning strikes along the Oregon-Idaho border started 15 new fires overnight in Idaho, the U.S. Forest Service told Boise’s KBOI-TV, but several had already been extinguished by Thursday afternoon. More than 2,800 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes were detected across southeast Oregon and Idaho on Wednesday alone, the National Weather Service in Boise said Thursday.

Overall, nearly 1 million acres have burned so far this summer in the Pacific Northwest. Oregon alone has 34 large fires, almost all of them in the central or eastern parts of the state.

Near Burns, fire lines on the Falls and Telephone fires held firm on Wednesday, fire mangers reported on Thursday. The Falls Fire was estimated at 140,422 acres with 40% containment as of Thursday evening, while the Telephone Fire was estimated to be 9,000 acres with zero containment, officials said. A total of 1,628 personnel are battling the blazes.

Climate change is increasing the frequency of wildfires sparked by lightning across the Pacific Northwest and western Canada as the region endures recording-breaking heat, with many triple-digit days and bone-dry conditions. Idaho Power has for the first time instituted a pre-emptive power outage, shutting off electricity to thousands of customers to prevent new fire starts and other power grid issues from wires downed by the high winds, the utility said.

California, Canada on fire, too

A burning car pushed into a gully sparked California’s largest wildfire of the year, authorities said Thursday as they announced the arrest of a suspect.

Flames from the fire the man is accused of starting exploded into what is now the Park Fire, which has burned more than 70,400 acres near the city of Chico. Evacuations were ordered in Butte and Tehama counties, with the blaze only 3% contained by midday Thursday.

A fire in Southern California was much smaller, but moving fast and threatening homes.

Evacuation orders were in effect Wednesday night in San Diego County after a wildfire began to spread fast near the San Diego and Riverside county line. Fire officials said the Grove Fire was heading southeast through steep and challenging terrain. The fire grew to about 900 acres overnight and was 10% contained by Thursday afternoon.

In the Canadian Rockies’ Jasper National Park, a fast-moving wildfire this week hit the park’s namesake town, forcing thousands to flee and causing significant damage in the World Heritage Site. That blaze, as well as those in the Western United States, have forced some areas to declare air quality alerts or advisories as skies filled with smoke and haze.