Coronavirus complicates fight against California wildfires
More than 1,00,000,00 acres charred across the state
NAPA COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - The battle against hundreds of wildfires across the state of California. Now the state's governor says coronavirus is making a tough fight even tougher.
So far wildfires have killed at least seven people. They've also scorched more than a million acres of land, and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings.
"Seven hundred fires now across the state since the beginning of this latest round of fires… that now have taken 1.3 million acres that have been burned." said Governor Gavin Newsom Wednesday.
Lightning sparked most of the blazes currently burning in California. In fact, the state has seen more than 13,000 lightning strikes since August 15. Strong winds and extremely hot, dry conditions have just fueled the flames.
Fire crews are also trying to fight the spread of coronavirus while they fight wildfires. That's complicating many of their traditional protocols. The virus is also complicating the evacuation process for those in the path of the flames.
"Of the roughly 4,000 evacuees we now have the vast majority of them, 3,041 people out of 3,889, in hotel rooms so they can cohort and away and not mixing with these congregate facilities and settings… all part of the parcel of protocols we put for not only evacuees, but for what we've done for homeless individuals and those that were testing positive or coming into contact with people who tested positive that needed to isolate as part of our previous pandemic efforts." said Newsom.
Thousands of Californians were allowed to return Wednesday as cooler weather and an influx of aid helped firefighters gain ground. Officials lifted evacuation orders for Napa and Sonoma county. Crews are also working to get people back into their homes in areas near two other major fire clusters.
