California stands for some of the biggest blazes in the history of the state – and the fire season is only just beginning. Tidens in news conference Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom said he had asked Australia and Canada to help fight the devastating blazes that burned during a heat wave and amid the coronavirus pandemic. He called this “an unusual moment” in the history of the state.
Firefighters and planes from 10 states, including Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Nevada, Iowa, Utah and Montana, began arriving in California Friday to help state crews who have been fighting unbelievably all week. against the extinguishers. The fires have killed at least five people and placed at least 100,000 under evacuation orders.
Newsom said the state has reached out to Canada and Australia for support, specifically in the form of firefighters, to help “overwhelmed” frontline heroes. The state has also secured federal support because it opposes the fire.
“We have more people, but it’s not enough,” Newsom said.
“We’ve just seen something like this in so many years,” he added.
Noah Berger / AP
Cal Fire, the state fire department, said Saturday that 13,700 firefighters are fighting more than 585 active fires, nearly two dozen of which are classified as “major fires,” the likes of which the state has never seen before. Northern California was hit particularly hard, after nearly 12,000 lightning strikes in a period of 72 hours.
By Friday, Cal Fire had called out 96% of its available fire engines. Nearly one million acres have burned, officials said.
“Please take those emergency evacuation orders seriously,” Newsom threatened.
Two Bay Area clusters – the LNU Lightning Complex and the SCU Lightning Complex – have become the second and third largest burns in recent state history by size, according to Cal Fire records, The Associated Press reported.
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Reinforcements began arriving Friday, more than doubling the number of personnel assigned to the LNU complex, from 580 to more than 1,400 Friday and nearly 200 fire engines were on the scene, fire officials said, according to the AP.
At the same time, California leads the nation in COVID-19 cases, with more than 660,000 confirmed positive cases by Saturday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University. Newsom stresses that emergency evacuation centers are taking the necessary precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus among people fleeing their homes.
Masks are required at all times in shelters, people entering are pre-checked with temperature controls and a series of health questions and social distance is maintained, the governor’s office sei.
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