THE California wildfires are TV news’ biggest story in a long while, and ratings are beginning to show it.

Tuesday’s special edition of “20/20” about the fires, anchored by Charlie Gibson, drew the newsmagazine’s biggest audience in more than a year, nearly 11 million viewers.

And the cable news channels – Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC – are reporting a 25-30 percent jump in audience this week.

The ratings appear to indicate that the fires have become a national topic of concern and conversation and not merely a regional story.

All three network news anchors have now gone to Southern California to report from the fire scene.