Wildfires Spread Throughout Washington State [Photo]

A large number of wildfires is seen spreading through Washington state, on the Pacific Coast, in this September 19 orbital image collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the NASA Aqua satellite.

Officials at the American space agency say that the summer of 2012 will probably go down in history as the Summer of Devastating Wildfires. At this time, Washington is the most severely-affected state.

Some of the wildfires here, such as the Wenatchee Complex Fire, have been burning for more than 10 days, despite authorities' best efforts to suppress them. It is believed that a lightning strike is responsible for triggering the widespread fire.

At this point, only 22 percent of the Wenatchee fire is contained, firefighters say. The flames now cover around 39,000 acres, they conclude.