California Wildfires’ Rural Burn Mutes Economic Impact to State

Dry, hot, and windy conditions are threatening to expand California’s largest wildfires, which so far are burning in largely rural areas, muting their economic impact.

The fires, which have killed 12 people and burned an area almost as big as Rhode Island, have hit the tourism industry around Yosemite National Park but left agricultural areas mostly unscathed.

“While the fires have been devastating and ferocious—our Mendocino wine industry has little impact,” said Bernadette Byrne, executive director of Mendocino WineGrowers Inc. in Northern California.

The blazes have forced thousands to evacuate homes and blackened about 1,000 square miles of forests, ...