A pilot has tragically passed away after being involved in a helicopter car crash while trying to battle the ongoing wildfires in California, USA.

Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, has declared a state of emergency after 367 fires were ignited.

23 out of those fires are major fires.

Experts believe that the fires are the result of high temperatures and around 11,000 lightning strikes, which happened in the span of just a number of days.

This year is considered to be the heaviest spate of thunderstorms the state has seen in the last decade.

In a bid to tackle the fires, the pilot of a Bell UH-1H helicopter jumped into action to disperse water over an area of land near the city of Coalinga.

However, the pilot died after their helicopter crashed.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the pilot was on a water-dropping mission when it crashed around 160 miles south of San Francisco.

The unidentified pilot privately owned the helicopter. It is believed that the pilot was alone when the crash happened.

The helicopter that he was operating was a “call when needed” aircraft, which means that the authorities would have to contact him so he could help.

After the fires, thousands of people were told to evacuate their houses.

The fires have reportedly burned through 330,000 acres.

In Fairfield, California, around 46,000 acres of hills and mountains have been burned by the massive wildfires.

Around 50 houses have been destroyed by the massive fires and nearly 50 houses have been damaged.