The Camp Fire in northern California is now the state’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire on record, causing at least 48 deaths and destroying more than 7,600 buildings. Since igniting last Thursday, the blaze has scorched more than 130,000 acres, an area more than four times the size of San Francisco.
Almost the entire town of Paradise, California, home to 26,000, burned down, leaving many homeless.
And it’s just one of several major infernos that have been raging in the Golden State this summer and fall as winds have picked up and spread walls of flames.
Breathing dirty air takes years off people’s lives. This tool shows just how much.
A motorcyclist and his son ride through haze as fire burns peatland and fields in South Sumatra, Indonesia, in 2015. Indonesia has struggled with air pollution for years, which takes a huge toll on health. Ulet Ifansasti/Getty ImagesAir pollution from wildfire smoke and many other sources, the focus of Wednesday’s World Environment Day, is unfortunately a growing problem around the world.
The World Health Organization recently reported that nine out of 10 people breathe polluted air, and that 7 million people die each year due to these hazards.
Read Article >How faith leaders respond to tragedies like the California wildfires
Noah Berger-Pool/Getty ImagesWhy does God let bad things happen to good people?
It’s a question that faith leaders have to answer before their congregations every day. But for clergy members in California, who have spent the past few weeks watching devastation wrought by a series of wildfires that have killed 77 people, left up to 1,000 missing, and destroyed tens of thousands of homes, it’s one that hits particularly close to home.
Read Article >Northern California still has dangerous air quality due to wildfire smoke
Sheriff deputies walk through a neighborhood destroyed by the Camp Fire on November 10, 2018, near Paradise, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesA wildfire raging in Northern California has left 80 dead and upward of 1000 missing. And now, because of the smoke, many more people in the region are breathing in dangerous, smoke-polluted air.
You can see in the Environmental Protection Agency’s air quality monitoring map below how widespread the air quality problem is for the state. This map will auto-update every hour with the latest air quality measurements.
Read Article >California’s wildfires are hardly “natural” — humans made them worse at every step
Firefighters are steadily beating back several massive autumn blazes in California, as heavy smoke from the wildfires blankets much of the state, creating unhealthy air quality.
The fierce Camp Fire near Chico has so far torched more than 150,000 acres, taken at least 77 lives, and destroyed 10,300 residences, making it the most destructive and deadliest wildfire in state history.
Read Article >The Paradise fire is catastrophic. And the wildfire threat to California is only growing.
Workers comb the charred debris of the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, for human remains. The Camp Fire is now the deadliest and most destructive fire in state history. Umair Irfan/VoxPARADISE, CALIFORNIA — Brook Jenkins moved to the town of Paradise to escape a rough neighborhood in nearby Chico and raise her three children in an idyllic small town, filled with trees. Paradise isn’t next to a forest; it’s in a forest. Trees run between houses like gargantuan picket fences.
“It was peaceful up there,” Jenkins said. “It was beautiful.”
Read Article >California’s newly homeless fire victims face the state’s severe housing shortage
Suzanne Kaksonen, an evacuee of the Camp Fire, and her cockatoo Buddy camp at a makeshift shelter outside a Walmart store in Chico, California, on November 14, 2018. Kaksonen lost her Paradise home in the blaze. Noah Berger/APThe death toll from the Camp Fire in Northern California keeps climbing, with 63 deaths, and some 631 people missing as of Friday morning.
But this isn’t merely the deadliest wildfire in California history — it’s also the most destructive. Last week, the fire blazed through Paradise and surrounding towns in Butte County with thousands of residents, leaving little in its wake. Some 11,862 structures were destroyed, including 9,700 single-family homes and 118 multi-family buildings.
Read Article >Why the wildfire in Northern California was so severe
Yuba and Butte County sheriff deputies search a destroyed home for a reported victim of the Camp Fire on November 10, 2018, in Paradise, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesThe Camp Fire in northern California is now the state’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire on record, causing at least 63 deaths and destroying more than 12,000 structures. Since igniting last Thursday, the blaze has scorched more than 142,000 acres, an area more than four times the size of San Francisco.
Though the fire has been burning in a relatively unpopulated area near Chico, California the entire town of Paradise, home to 26,000, burned down, leaving many homeless.
Read Article >Deadly wildfires are still threatening Northern and Southern California
A table and chairs outside of one of at least 20 homes destroyed by the Woolsey Fire in Malibu, California. APThe Camp Fire burning near Chico, California, is now the most destructive (and tied for deadliest) fire in state history. And it’s just one of several major infernos that have been raging in the Golden State as late-season winds have picked up and spread walls of flames.
The Woolsey Fire in Southern California has taken lives and property too, and could still spread further. Already more than 300,000 people have been forced to evacuate statewide.
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