As a scorching heatwave ends its second week in California, firefighters struggled again on Friday to contain the hundreds of wildfires burning around the state. At least six people have died, 43 fire fighters and civilians injured and over 500 homes and other structures have been destroyed.
“If you are in denial about climate change, come to California,” Governor Gavin Newsom said, as he addressed the wildfires in a last-minute video recorded for the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night. Newsom added that there were over 370 wildfires burning throughout the state.
Many firefighters are still working 72-hour shifts to save communities where over 175,000 people face mandatory evacuation, according to Reuters.
This past weekend, the state was hit by its worst dry-lightning storms in nearly two decades, with over 11,000 strikes sparking hundreds of fires in the dry, parched forests and grasslands withering in the excessive heat. Most of the fire activity is in northern California.
Two of the fires are now the 7th and 10th largest fires in state history, having burned as much as 300 square miles each, Cal Fire said, per USA Today.
The scope of the wildfires is astounding
Of the hundreds of fires burning throughout the state, dozens have collected into three major fires – blazing their way through forest, canyon country and rural areas in the San Francisco Bay Area and central California.
The largest fire listed on Cal Fire’s website is the SCU Lightning Complex. This large fire, started August 18, 2020. This fire is made up of 20 separate fires burning near San Jose, and is 10 percent contained.
The SCU Lightning Complex Fire has scorched over 230,000 acres across five Northern California counties, including Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa as of Friday morning, more than double the 102,000 acres it had burned through 24 hours before, reports NBC News.
The LNU Lightning Complex is the next largest fire on Cal Fire’s list and it also consists of multiple fires burning in Napa, Sonoma, Lake, Yolo, and Solano Counties.
As of Friday morning, this fire, which started August 17, has charred 219,000 acres and is 7 percent contained. This fire is also responsible for at least four deaths and has destroyed at least 480 structures.
A utility crewman died on Wednesday while on duty helping clear electrical hazards for first-responders in this fire. Earlier that day, the pilot of a firefighting helicopter contracted by the state was killed in a crash while he was conducting water drops.
The CZU August Lightning Complex Fire, which started August 17, has grown to 50,000 acres and is 0 percent contained. At least 64,000 people have been evacuated as of Friday.
