A bolt of lightning that hit Boulder Creek, California, on August 21, started hundreds of fires. As stated in a news report, approximately 12,000 lightning strikes caused 585 fires in the state over the past week.
“Approximately 950,000 acres in the state are burning with more than 13,000 firefighters working the fires.”
California Fire spokesperson Steve Kaufmann.
Considered to be one of the worst disasters in California, the wildfire destroyed hundreds of buildings, scorched millions of land acres, and killed at least six people.
“Two fires – the 314,000-acre LNU Lightning Complex Fire in the northern Bay Area and Central Valley, and the 291,000-acre SCU Lightning Complex Fire largely east of San Jose – are among the state’s three largest wildfires in recorded history,” according to a news report.
Thousands of firefighters battled with dozens of significant fires across the state. Despite more than 13,000 firefighters responded, with some on 24-hour shifts, the number of fires is too much to fight, and the resources are not enough to prevent more casualties, Cal Fire official explained.
With prison inmates being an “integral part of firefighting operations,” their inability to help caused by the early releases during the Covid-19 outbreak resulted in a resource shortage. Six hundred fewer inmate firefighters are available this fire season than last year because of this manumission.
More than hundreds of people evacuated to prevent death accumulation. According to a news report, most of the deaths came from L.N.U. Lightning Complex that covered an area of 314, 000 acres around Napa Valley. In the opinion of Cal Fire, CZU Lightning Fire forced the evacuation of more than 64,000 people.
The state received a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration, as announced by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday. The declaration provides federal aid from President Donald Trump to support the recovery efforts for those affected by wildfires.
The declaration from the White House specified the following areas included: Lake, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, and Yolo counties.
In line with these recovery efforts, the California officials urged everyone to prepare a bag with clothes, necessities, and emergency kit so that they can quickly evacuate their homes at a notice.
“This is just the beginning of the state’s wildfire season, something that has been a constant threat during the past four years of record-setting blazes for their breadth and lethality,” according to a news report.
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