State wildfires toll — 3.1M acres scorched
Five of the 10 biggest fires in California history have started this summer
California continued to set devastating fire records Thursday, even as cooler, less-windy weather provided some relief to firefighters battling dozens of blazes.
Twenty-nine fires burned up and down the state, including the August Complex in the Mendocino National Forest — now the largest wildfire in California history. It has torched more than 470,000 acres and was less than a quarter contained.
That massive blaze is part of an unprecedented 2020 fire siege. Of the 10 largest wildfires in recorded California history, half were sparked last month and are still burning, according to Cal Fire. Authorities on Thursday reported seven additional deaths in the West Zone of the North Complex Fire
burning in Butte County, bringing the total to 10.
“It’s a historic season on top of a historic season that replaced a historic season. We just keep setting new precedents, and then we keep destroying them,” said Sean Norman, a battalion chief with Cal Fire’s Butte County division. “Every year it gets worse and worse.”
The fires have the potential to affect the health of Bay Area residents too, as smoke from hundreds of miles away continues to blanket the region. The ominous orange glow that filled the sky Wednesday was replaced by a more normal-looking gray haze Thursday. The air looked better, but it was more dangerous. Air quality readings from Oakland to Fremont, and from San Francisco down to Palo Alto hit unhealthy levels, according to the U.S. Air Quality Index.
A marine layer had rested between the smoke and the ground Wednesday, mostly filtering out all but the largest chunks of ash. By Thursday, that marine layer began to mix with the smoke, and smaller particles were making their way toward the ground, National Weather Service meteorologist Roger Gass said.
The smoke stretches across the entire state — even extending about 100 miles over the Pacific Ocean.
Through the thick, gray smoke that sat low in the pine trees throughout Berry Creek — about 25 miles northeast of Oroville — the devastation was obvious Thursday. Most homes on Bald Rock Road were leveled. The elementary school on Rockefeller Road was still smoldering well after the bulk of the Bear Fire, which has forced at least 20,000 people to evacuate and killed 10, blazed through Tuesday night. Melted cars sat abandoned in driveways.
Nearby, on Squirrel Lane, Farshad Azad and Shannon Fuller, volunteers with the North Valley Animal Disaster Group, searched the rubble for lost pets.
“Luna!” Fuller called out for a missing dog. Azad whistled.
They couldn’t find Luna, so they left out food and water. But they didn’t find any dead animals, either. There was still hope.
They had already rescued one pet in the area, a fluffy, golden-coated dog with eyes of two different colors.
“Everything around him was incinerated,” Azad said.
So far this year, wildfires have burned 3.1 million acres in California, killed 19 people and destroyed more than 3,900 buildings, according to Cal Fire.
Thirty-seven new fires started Wednesday alone, though crews were able to contain all but two of them.
The Oak Fire, north of Willits in Mendocino County, had burned 863 acres and was a quarter contained Thursday. The
North Complex in the Plumas National Forest, which includes the Bear Fire, had burned more than 247,000 acres and was 23% contained. Members of a Cal Fire hand crew battling the North Complex were overrun by unpredictable flames Wednesday and had to deploy an emergency fire shelter. They managed to escape with two minor injuries.
The Creek Fire in the Sierra National Forest, one of the largest blazes still raging unchecked, had burned nearly 176,000 acres and had no containment.
But the weather seemed to be on the firefighters’ side. Red flag warnings — which signal high fire danger — have been lifted in most parts of the state. And by Thursday, power had been restored to most of the roughly 172,000 PG&E customers affected by Monday night’s public safety shutoffs, designed to prevent new fires.
“Winds have died down today, and they’ll continue to be light through tonight and tomorrow,” weather service meteorologist Steve Anderson said Thursday. “Thanks to the smoke, we haven’t seen a whole lot of sun, so that definitely puts a cap on the heating. And we’re expecting to see temperatures near normal through the weekend.”
A low-pressure trough is expected to approach the Bay Area in the middle of next week, which could help blow away the remaining smoke, Anderson said. It also might bring some light rain to parts of the North Bay.
But now the state has to contend with another weather factor that could complicate its fire season: La Niña. This phenomenon, which occurs when the surface temperature of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America is colder than normal, could bring more rain to Washington, Oregon and the far-northern reaches of California, said weather service meteorologist Gerry Diaz. But it could mean drier conditions — and increased fire danger — for the rest of the Golden State.
“It’s something that we’ll be keeping an eye on,” Diaz said. “We’re going to have to wait and see.”
That’s unsettling news for people like 34-year-old Joshua Romero, who fled the Camp Fire in 2018, and evacuated again Tuesday night as the Bear Fire closed in. He heard the flames approaching his Berry Creek home, grabbed his pitbull-lab mix Baby Girl, and got out.
“I definitely didn’t want to die up there. It wasn’t the way I wanted to go out,” Romero said.
Now, he’s sleeping in his truck in a Walmart parking lot in Chico. He’s not sure if anything remains of his 1.5acre property.
When faced with an evacuation order, Romero usually tries to stay put as long as possible.
“This time was a little different,” he said. “It got too scary.”