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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Vivian Ho (now) and Adam Gabbatt (earlier)

Wildfires raging across California 'historic' – as it happened

Firefighters in Ben Lomond, California on Sunday.
Firefighters in Ben Lomond, California on Sunday. Photograph: Peter Dasilva/EPA

Summary

Thanks for sticking with us through our coverage today. We’ll be back tomorrow with more news about the California wildfires.

  • Wildfires across California continued burning, killing seven people and destroying at least 12,000 structures as of last count. At last count, 7,002 fires currently burn in California. A weekend lightning event that fire scientists feared would create more fires was not as bad as everyone had predicted – the governor said 289 strikes caused 10 new fires – but more lightning is predicted tonight.
  • Since 15 August, 1.2m acres have burned in California from what Cal Fire is calling the August Lightning Siege. In total this year, 1.4m acres have burned – in comparison, this time last year, just 56,000 acres had burned.
  • Two wildfires burning through the San Francisco Bay Area – the LNU Lightning Complex Fire and the SCU Lightning Complex Fire – have officially grown to the second-largest and third-largest fires in California history. The LNU fire, which burns through Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Yolo and Lake counties is at 350,030 acres and 22% containment as of this afternoon. The SCU fire, which burns through Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, is at 347,196 acres and 10% containment.
  • Smoke from these “historic” wildfires, which has driven millions of Californians indoors during a heat wave and created extremely unhealthy air quality throughout several regions, is expected to spread across the country.

Updated

Here’s a map of the fires burning throughout California at the moment:

As of noon, there were 7,002 active fires burning, according to the governor.

This “historic” spate of California wildfires have so far displaced hundreds of thousands during a pandemic, killed seven, destroyed at least tens of thousands of structures, burned through the equivalent acreage of a small state and sent plumes of smoke over several regions, forcing millions indoors during a heat wave.

Yet the country’s paper of record – the New York Times – seems unwilling to feature this incredibly newsworthy disaster that has affected millions of Americans prominently on its pages.

Californians have long felt overlooked and almost deliberately misunderstood by East Coast media – just look to Los Angeles Twitter any time the New York Times writes anything about the city. Last year, Curbed LA came up with a bingo card after a New York Times published a piece about Echo Park that included cliches like “Joan Didion quote”, “yoga/juice/kale” and “casual racism”.

But when the Washington Post dedicates its lead, above-the-fold front page image to the wildfires and the New York Times chooses to run an image of a water park party in Wuhan, China? Well, that’s a choice, to say the least.

Updated

The massive LNU Lightning Complex Fire is burning within miles of two California state prisons, including one that imprisons terminally ill people in hospice care, the elderly and medically vulnerable.

My brilliant colleague Sam Levin reports that authorities have resisted calls to evacuate the California Medical Facility and Solano state prison.

“They are breathing in fire and smoke, and they have nowhere to run,” said Sophia Murillo, 39, whose brother is incarcerated at CMF in Vacaville.

Read more here:

It appears that the smoke from the wildfires in California has gotten so intense that it has spread clear across the country.

Meanwhile, in California, air quality officials are still warning residents to take precautions. But skies are also looking bluer in some areas for the first time in days.

This is how you evacuate 600+ goats.

The largest wildfires that firefighters are battling in California at this moment are called lightning complex fires. Cal Fire has referred to the past week as the August Lightning Siege.

The cause of the CZU Lightning Complex Fire and the Butte/Tehama/Glenn Lightning Complex Fire have officially been listed as lightning. The two largest fires currently burning though - the LNU Lightning Complex Fire and the SCU Lightning Complex Fire - are still listed as under investigation.

That doesn’t mean they were misnamed or that fire officials have exaggerated the August Lightning Siege - it means Cal Fire is busy and that figuring out the point or points of origin for these particular complex fires is probably complicated.

What it comes down to is that lightning has been determined to be the cause of five out of seven of the national forest or park fires currently burning: the August Complex in Mendocino National Forest, the Loyalton Fire in Tahoe National Forest, the Castle Fire in Sequoia National Park, the North Complex Fire in Plumas National Forest and the Beach Fire in Inyo National Forest.

In total, those fires have burned 275,439 acres, or 430 square miles - just a hair under the size of New York City.

As evacuees fled their homes, carrying just what they could pack into their cars, some were forced to roll out their sleeping bags and set up for the night in a community park.

Photographer Rachel Bujalski captured a devastating snapshot of the choices that some evacuees faced while escaping the LNU Lightning Complex fire.

“We didn’t want to end up in a crowded place and didn’t want to go too far from where we live,” said one Sonoma county resident.

Updated

Tens of thousands around California have had to evacuate since the lightning fires began last week. Some have been able to return to their homes, but others are not so fortunate.

Which raises the question: how do you set up emergency evacuation shelters in the time of social distancing and Covid-19?

Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, addressed the issue during his briefing, discussing some of the measures the state has taken.

For evacuees unable to find alternative forms of shelter with friends and family, the state has housed 1,480 people in 599 rooms across 31 hotels.

In addition to those efforts, there are 17 congregate shelters operating in seven counties that have housed 731 people.

Newsom described touring some of these congregate shelters in the past week to observe the health and safety protocols that they were undertaking. Before he could even enter to tour, he had to undergo a temperature check and a health screening, and then a nurse provided him with shelter guidelines for social distancing. Shelter occupants have to wear face masks, he said, and air purifiers were running at all times.

The cots were spaced “in excess of 10 feet apart”, said Newsom, and shelter officials had taped out paths and spacing for bathroom use.

“Nothing is perfect. Everybody is human trying to do their absolute best,” Newsom said. “But what I saw, I was very impressed and very gratified of the seriousness to which people were taking this effort.”

Updated

Wildfires grow to second- and third- largest in history

Two of the lightning complex wildfires burning around the San Francisco Bay Area have grown to the size of the second- and third- largest in California history.

The LNU Lightning Complex Fire, burning in Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Yolo and Lake counties, has now grown to 350,000 acres and 22% containment, according to the governor.

The SCU Lightning Complex Fire, burning in Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, is now 347,000 acres and 10% containment.

The governor used the term “historic” to describe the wildfires.

Here’s some context, with more up-to-date numbers. This time last year, California had 4,292 wildfires burning across 56,000 acres.

This year, the state has 7,002 fires burning across more than 1.4 million acres.

So far, seven people have been killed in these wildfires and an estimated 12,000 structures destroyed - Governor Newsom noted that the number of structures destroyed is only what has been reported to the state and that the actual number is most likely more.

Updated

10 new fires in the last 24 hours

The lightning event that everyone was dreading resulted in 289 lightning strikes that sparked 10 new fires, Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said.

Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, will be providing an update on the wildfires as well as the pandemic.

We’ll be providing a summary of his briefing, but you can follow along here as well:

Wildfires have burned more than 1.27 million acres – 1,988.7 square miles – of California since 31 July.

That’s more than the size of Delaware. That’s two times the size of Luxembourg.

The majority of that – 1.2 million acres – was burned as of 15 August, according to Cal Fire, from what is now being known as the August Lightning Siege.

Updated

Northern California health officials are telling residents to stay inside, to protect themselves from the poor air quality caused by the wildfire smoke. But for many, that’s not an option.

A vulnerable, essential labor force – the more than 381,000 agriculture workers in California – already disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic keeps working as others flee and take shelter.

These low-wage, primarily Latinx laborers do not have the option of paid time off, hazard pay or sick days - for them, keeping America fed means keeping their families fed. On days of heavy smoke, they’re forced to choose between their health and their paycheck.

Workers rights advocates told me that state regulations require companies to provide workers with face masks when the air quality reaches the unhealthiest level. But with the various levels of contractors and subcontractors within the industry – a company may have a different company in charge of hiring the fieldworkers and another company in charge of overseeing the fieldworkers – what’s on paper as a company mandate does not always end up in practice in the fields.

And unfortunately, according to advocates, the state and federal occupational safety and health agencies meant to hold these companies accountable only respond when complaints are filed when “any person can just drive through the fields and see if there are workers not being protected or given safety precautions”, said Lucas Zucker, the policy and communications director for the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy.

“The structure of these worker safety agencies are not set up to respond quickly in a disaster,” he said.

Read more about the situation here:

Updated

The three wildfires burning around the San Francisco Bay Area have grown to a total size larger than the state of Rhode Island.

The SCU Lightning Complex Fire that is burning in various locations throughout Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties to the east is at 347,196 acres - or 542.5 squres miles - and 10% containment.

The LNU Lightning Complex Fire that is burning across Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Lake and Yolo counties in the north is now at 350,030 acres - or 546.9 square miles - and 22% containment.

The CZU Lightning Complex Fire that is burning through San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties to the south has grown to 74,000 acres - or 115.6 square miles - and 8% containment.

The three wildfires total about 1,205 square miles. Rhode Island is about 1,034 square miles.

Northern California braced itself for a dry lightning event last night. After all, a number of the hundreds of wildfires currently burning in the state - the LNU Lightning Complex Fire, the CZU Lightning Complex Fire, the SCU Lightning Complex Fire just to name a few - were sparked by lightning.

Yet while strikes in the Central Valley and westerns Sierra foothills may have sparked new fires, they were “less widespread and intense than earlier feared.”

In fact, the lightning event was minimal enough that the National Weather Service canceled its red flag warning for the Bay Area.

While this is some much-needed good news, like everything in California, that hardly means all is safe.

Updated

Hey all, Vivian Ho on the west coast taking over the liveblog for the day.

The San Francisco Bay Area received a light reprieve in the way of rain last night, a part of the lightning event that ended up being “less widespread and intense” in the region as earlier predicted.

The rain cooled temperatures, offering some relief for Bay Area residents, many of whom do not have air conditioning, forced to keep their windows shut because of the smoke in the air.

In San Francisco, though a light smokey haze still hung overhead, painting the sky an eerie white-gray, the chokehold these fires have had on our lungs felt as if it loosened, just a bit. Though the scent of smoke was still strong, the sting in our eyes felt less and more tolerable than it has in days.

Summary

  • Northern California remained besieged by fire on Monday morning. The LNU Lightning Complex, north of San Francisco, is now 350,000 acres in size. South-east of the city, the SCU Lightning Complex spans 347,000 acres.
  • The early morning weather suggested there could be a respite. Associated Press reported that humidity rose on Monday, and there was no return of the onslaught of lightning strikes that ignited the infernos a week earlier.
  • A “red flag” warning remains in place across swathes of northern California, however. The National Weather Service warned that extreme fire conditions including high temperatures, low humidity and wind gusts could result in “dangerous and unpredictable fire behavior”.
  • The LNU blaze is 22% contained, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection said. The SCU fire is 10% contained. The fires are now the second and third largest fires in California’s history. More than 650 fires have hit the state in the past week.

Updated

Firefighters and residents in North California have been given a boost this morning, as predicted bad weather has so far evaded the state.

Humidity rose on Monday, Associated Press reported, and there was no return of the onslaught of lightning strikes that ignited the infernos a week earlier.

The region surrounding San Francisco Bay remained under an extreme fire danger warning until late Monday afternoon amid the possibility of of lightning and gusty winds, but fire commanders said the weather had aided their efforts so far.

“Mother Nature’s helped us quite a bit,” said Billy See, the California department of forestry and fire protection incident commander for a complex of fires burning south of San Francisco.

The National Weather Service has retained issued a “red flag” warning for the drought-stricken area of Northern California, however.

That mans extremely dangerous fire conditions exist, including high temperatures, low humidity, lightning and wind gusts up to 65 mph (105 kph) that officials said “may result in dangerous and unpredictable fire behavior”.

A plane drops fire retardant over the Jones fire on Monday, outside Nevada City, California.
A plane drops fire retardant over the Jones fire on Monday, outside Nevada City, California. Photograph: Paul Kitagaki Jr/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

ABC News has shared this video from firefighters driving through a wildfire. According to the news channel 14,000 firefighters have now been deployed in California.

The San Lorenzo Valley water district, 70 miles south of San Francisco and 10 miles north of Santa Cruz, has lost 4.5 million gallons of water after fire melted a main water pipeline.

KSBW8 reported that the five mile long pipe melted due to intense heat from San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.

“Officials with the SLV Water District had to refocus water flow so firefighters battling the CZU Lightning Complex Fire will have access to water,” KSBW8 reported. Firefighters have enough water to keep battling the blaze.

The water main break impacts about 8,000 residents, who have been evacuated due to the blaze.

The CZU LIghtening Fire seen from the Cotoni-Coast National Monument, in Santa Cruz County.
The CZU LIghtening Fire seen from the Cotoni-Coast National Monument, in Santa Cruz County. Photograph: Amy Katz/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

The Ranch Fire, which burned some 410,000 acres in California in 2018, is the largest fire in state’s history.

According to the latest statistics from the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) two of the fires burning outside of the San Francisco Bay Area are not far behind.

The LNU fire, in wine country north of San Francisco, is now just over 350,000 acres, and 22% contained, according to Cal Fire:

While the SCU Lightning Complex, south-east of San Francisco, spans 347,196. It is 10% contained.

That places the two blazes at second and third in the state’s largest fires in history.

Sparked by a rare lightning storm and stoked by hot, windy weather, the fires have expanded quickly into the Sierra Nevada, southern California, and regions north, east and south of San Francisco, writes the Guardian’s Maanvi Singh.

Maanvi has written an in-depth explainer on how the fires started and began to rage out of control:

A confluence of extreme weather conditions set the stage, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. First came a record-breaking, continuing heatwave across the state. Temperatures in Death Valley hit 130F and the state saw rolling blackouts for the first time in nearly two decades as millions of Californians seeking to cool their homes strained the electrical grid.

Next, a tropical storm in the Pacific Ocean spun moisture toward California, triggering a rare lighting storm that zapped California more than 10,800 times over a three-day period, sparking small fires across the Bay Area and northern California. Then the humidity dropped and winds picked up, stoking the small flames until they erupted into full-blown infernos.

Read Maanvi’s full piece here:

Firefighters in California are not just at risk from the blazes which have besieged the state – they also pose a potential coronavirus threat, to themselves and others.

Public health officials are increasingly concerned that the 12,000 firefighters – many of them from out of state – could trigger a super-spreader coronavirus event as they tackle the fires, the San Francisco Chronicle reported:

The concerns are multilayered. Most important: No one wants firefighters to get sick, for their own sake. Also, the state can’t afford to pull crews off duty when staff resources are so thin. With personnel coming to the region from throughout the state as well as other parts of the country, public health experts fear a “super-spreader” event if someone infected on the front lines brings the virus back home.

According to the Chronicle, “the firefighters present a unique challenge”.

Social distancing is difficult, as the firefighters live in small shelters where they sleep and eat together. They travel to blazes in trucks with the windows rolled up, the newspaper said, and frequently cannot wear face coverings due to the extreme heat.

“It’s the perfect storm: Bring people in from all over the western United States to work together in a communal setting, and then send them back,” said John Swartzberg, a UC Berkeley infectious disease expert who also advised the U.S. Forest Service.

Good morning

Almost 250,000 people are under fire evacuation orders and warnings in California, as three huge fires continue to rage around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Firefighters are bracing on Monday for more damage, as the National Weather Service (NWS) warned that fast moving storms will lead to a risk of new fires erupting.

Some 650 fires are burning in California, ignited by nearly 12,000 lightning strikes across the state in the past week and accelerated by a record-breaking heatwave.

The NWS has issued a “red flag” warning across swathes of northern California, valid until Monday evening. It warned that extreme fire conditions including high temperatures, low humidity and wind gusts up to 65mph could result in “dangerous and unpredictable fire behavior”.

The three fires in the Bay Area are raging across more than 200,000 hectares, and have destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and structures. Seven people are reported to have been killed.

At one of the three blazes, the CZU Lightning Complex fire in the Santa Cruz mountains, south of San Francisco, authorities announced the discovery of the body of a 70-year-old man in a remote area called Last Chance on Sunday.

Meanwhile the LNU Lightning Complex fire, in wine country north of San Francisco, and SCU Lightning Complex, south-east of the city, have grown to be two of the three largest fires in state history, both burning more than 500 square miles.

The LNU fire has been the most deadly and destructive, accounting for five deaths and 845 destroyed homes and other buildings.

map

Updated

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