California wildfires blackened skies, killed at least five people and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes, with the largest blaze doubling in size over a single day.
Firefighting crews were meanwhile struggling again Friday to get fires burning around the state under control as conditions improved only slightly from the day before.
The largest group of blazes, the SCU Lightning Complex Fire, charred nearly 230,000 acres across five Northern California counties, including Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa, as of Friday morning, more than double the 102,000 acres it had burned through 24 hours before, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire. It was 10 percent contained.
The Lightning Complex Fire, charred 219,000 acres across another five counties as of Friday morning, including Napa, Sonoma and other counties in wine country, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire. It was 7 percent contained.
The fire has also claimed at least four lives and destroyed at least 480 structures.
Three of the deaths were in Napa County, and the fourth in Solano County, according to officials. The three people who died in Napa County were found Wednesday in a residence, with their remains recovered Thursday, Napa County Sheriff's Office spokesman Henry Wofford said.
A PG&E utility worker also died Wednesday while clearing infrastructure around the fire complex to make it safe for first responders, Cal Fire said in a statement Thursday. It was not immediately clear whether that worker's death was included in the Cal Fire count of four fatalities in the LNU complex.
A fifth fatality, of a helicopter pilot whose aircraft crashed Wednesday morning while he was conducting water drops, was in a different blaze, the Hills Fire in Fresno County, officials said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week that many of the fires were sparked by a large number of lightning strikes in California — about 11,000 over four days — as the state grappled with a heat wave.
Newsom linked the wildfires to climate change during a last-minute video recorded for the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night from a forest near Watsonville, after he visited an evacuation center.
“If you are in denial about climate change, come to California,” he said.
“I confess this is not where I expected to be speaking here tonight,” the governor said into what appeared to be a cellphone camera. Newsom had recorded an earlier, more lighthearted video, to be delivered in the convention’s prime-time hours but decided it didn’t bring the right tone amid his state’s disasters, said Dan Newman, one of his political advisers.
About two dozen major fires or complexes have been burning across California, but the total of confirmed blazes is more than 350, Newsom said Wednesday.
Tim Edwards, president of the CalFire firefighters union, said 2020 was beginning to resemble 2017, when the state saw some of its most destructive fires, with more than 10,000 structures damaged or destroyed.
“We are in the same situation but with 10 times as many fires,” he said.
The state has over 10,000 firefighters on the front lines, but officials in charge of each of the major fire complexes say they are strapped for resources. Some firefighters were working 72-hour shifts instead of the usual 24 hours.
Newsom said he requested 375 fire engines from other states. So far, governors in Arizona, Nevada and Texas have agreed to send crews and support, the governor said.
With a majority of fire activity in Northern California, that region was dealing with an air quality crisis, as ash fell to the ground from above.
Public health officials urged people to stay inside with windows and doors shut until the smoke subsided. The region's air district extended a “Spare the Air” alert through Sunday, which makes it illegal to burn wood.
And with a statewide call to conserve energy to avoid more power outages, residents sweltering in a prolonged heat wave and surrounded by smoke must choose between cranking their fans and air conditioners or shutting them down to conserve energy.
“These disasters need solutions that are in direct conflict with each other," said Jennifer K. Balch, a fire scientist at the University of Colorado. “COVID-19 is forcing us outside to reduce transmission risk while extreme wildfire smoke is forcing us back inside where the air is better. We’re running out of options to cope under the weight of compound disasters.”
While the fire risk is not as high as earlier in the week, firefighters aren't looking at favorable conditions Friday. The weekend would still bring low humidity, temperatures in the mid-to-upper 90s and the risk of more lightning that could spark new fires, meteorologists said.
In one week, the already-existing fires have burned nearly 600,000 acres across California. The state usually averages about 700,000 acres burned in an entire year.
