Personal blog about states
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE) have been identified by regulators as potentially responsible for the deadly Camp fire in northern California and the Woolsey fire in southern California , which began within hours of each other last Thursday.
The cause of the fire has been determined to be accidental. It started when high winds broke a tree branch and sent it into power lines, creating sparks. Ten residences were destroyed and 15 were damaged. There were five firefighter injuries.
Heat sources help spark the wildfire and bring fuel to temperatures hot enough to ignite. Lightning, burning campfires or cigarettes, and even the sun can all provide sufficient heat to spark a wildfire .
Thirty-three deaths have been attributed to California wildfires since August — four firefighters and 29 other people overtaken by the flames. By far the deadliest fire is the Bear Fire in the North Complex, which killed 16 people in the communities of Berry Creek and Feather Falls.
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An August 19, 2020 satellite image of the wildfires burning in Northern California , covering a significant portion of California and nearby states.
2020 California wildfires | |
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Cost | >$2.059 billion ( 2020 USD) |
Buildings destroyed | 10,488 (CAL FIRE) 9,211 (NIFC Year-to-Date report) |
Deaths | 31 |
Non-fatal injuries | 37 |
4.2 million acres
Again , California is aflame — and it isn’t close to being over yet. As of Tuesday, more than two million acres have burned across the state so far in 2020, which makes this a record year, surpassing 2018, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The El Dorado Fire in Southern California was caused by a “smoke generating pyrotechnic device,” said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention in a statement. The fire started Saturday morning at El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, about 72 miles east of Los Angeles.
(CNN) One of the multiple wildfires burning in California was started during a gender-reveal party, officials said. A “smoke-generating pyrotechnic device” used at the party sparked the El Dorado Fire in San Bernardino County, Cal Fire said in a press release.
As the toll from California’s wildfires grows higher year after year, the state’s future appears fiery and hazy with smoke. More than half of the acres burned each year in the western United States can be attributed to climate change .
Camp Fire is deadliest wildfire in California history The death toll in Northern California’s Camp Fire reached historic levels after the blaze devastated Butte County in November 2018. The fire has killed 86 people, the most in a single blaze in state history, and at one point left nearly 500 people unaccounted for.