Fire season sets record
October 4, 2020
The 2020 fire season in the US started on Aug. 16 caused by thunderstorms from the tropical storm Fausto. The fires spread rapidly this season from the drier weather as a result of climate change.
As of late October, fires like the Silverado Fire and Blue Ridge Fire eat around 15,000 acres with their flame. For big fires like these it takes days even weeks to get them contained, let alone stop them (cnn.com).
Most of the inmate fire fighting crews that help the most during fire season were smaller because of the jails granting early release during Covid. Other crews caught the virus and couldn’t go to the smoke filled battle (thecalifornian.com).
Since the beginning of the season more than 80,000 people have been told to stay away from their homes. These evacuations are hard because of Covid restrictions like closings of hotels and higher unemployment rates.
At the time of this issue, the fires are still burning southern California and other western states. Right now the Bond Fire which started from a house fire and spread overnight by high winds is setting 7,000 acres of land in a blaze.
The fires are not even the main source of deaths during fire season, the smoke coming from them is the problem. Researchers at Stanford University say that the wildfires could be responsible for as many as 3,000 deaths (newsmax.com).
A resident of south California, Yael Braslavski, said the smoke most affected her and made her home more dreary and depressing.
“The fires affected me because of the smoke,” said Braslavski. “We had to stay indoors for a while because the air quality was awful. It looked grey outside and it was super unhealthy.”
Alex Castro, another resident of south California, explains that the causes of wildfires are too many to be fixed with one solution but they all lead to the same bigger picture.
“To say what would actually prevent them is difficult to say because it’s a combination of things that caused them,” said Castro, “High wind speeds, hot and dry weather, and the biggest of all global warming. So if we would take better care of our planet it would be much less likely.”