https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/us/california-fires-cost.html#:~:text=Over%20the%20past%2050%20years,in%20excess%20of%20%2410%20billion.

There are several states currently dealing with the West Coast wildfires and here are a few. California has undoubtedly been hit the hardest by these fires. As of September 6, California passed the record for the worst year in history for the amount of damaged land. The North Complex Fires (started Aug. 17), The Creek Fire, (started Sept, 4), and the El Dorado Fire (started Sept. 5) are a few examples of fires that have contributed to the massive amount of damage in California. The Cameron Peak Fire in Colorado started on August 13 in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest west of Fort Collins. There are over 30 wildfires in Oregon currently. A few of them are the Beachie Creek Fire (started Sept. 7), the Riverside Fire, (started Sept. 15), and the Holiday Farm Fire (started Sept. 8).

The West Coast wildfires have impacted several states. Some of the hardest hit states are California, Colorado, and Oregon. Other impacted states are Idabo, Utah, and Washington. In addition to those states, Canada has been impacted as well.

The West Coast wildfires were started by a rare lightning storm. After they were started, the wildfires were stoked by hot and windy weather. There was also a “confluence of extreme weather conditions” which led to the fires which included a record-breaking heatwave and a tropical storm. The tropical storm caused the lightning storm which zapped California over 10,800 times in 3 days, and caused small fires in the Bay Area and north California.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/21/california-wildfires-explained-q-and-a-weather-smoke#:~:text=Sparked%20by%20a%20rare%20lightning,and%20south%20of%20San%20Francisco.

 

The most dangerous wildfire in California, El Dorado, was sparked by a firework during a gender reveal party. The grass caught fire, but the attendants at the party could not put out the fire. The hot and dry weather conditions in California greatly influenced the out-of-control fires. Climate change is also a contributing factor to why these fires are so difficult to contain. 

The wildfires have put California in a state of emergency for almost 1 month. As of September 6, California passed the record for the worst year in history for the amount of damaged land. The fires have spread to 10 other states, burning more than 4.6 million acres of land. There have been some fatalities. These fires release c02, causing more climate change and issues in the atmosphere.

The powerful wind gusts are blowing ash miles south, making the air quality very poor. The smoke clouds are rising up and “cloaked” the sky, giving an orange appearance to the sky.

This is happening because the smoke particles are acting like filters in the air. The colors that make up the visible light are being blocked out. Red and orange are the only unaffected colors due to their wavelength. If the smoke gets thick enough, the sky can turn completely dark in the middle of the day.

All together, over 30,000 firefighters and support personnel have been attending to the fires. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is a part of handling the fires as well. Local firefighters have been on the front lines, working tirelessly to try and contain the fires the best they can.

  Wildfires affect climate and air quality. WIldfires release large amounts of pollutants into the atmosphere which damages the sphere. Toxic emissions can also affect the air quality making it hard for first responders to contain the fires. 

Fires burn so often in California that there is no longer a fire season. The wild fires in 2020 have surpassed previously dated fires in California. It is reported that there have been “fire tornados” that have spread the fire. 

These wildfires started by a rare lightning storm and an extreme change of climate and temperature creating fires. wind picked up changing these small fires into larger ones. fire quickly spread throughout the West Coast. 

Over 17,000 firefighters remain fighting these wildfires. since August 15th over 4,200 structures have been destroyed. The fires are still being fought today. 

Who/how did it start?- 

Many people believe that the California fire had started due to the infamous gender reveal party, although that is true there are many other reasons for that fire and all the others. Climate change has always impacted the west coast, such as California, and has been the main cause for a lot of fires that have happened. The changing humidity, droughts, and storms all play a role in creating fires. All of these factors cause a lot of harm. For example, droughts are almost considered a fuel to fire. This is because the way most fires slow down is because of rainfall, so with droughts that makes it nearly impossible. Another example is of storms. Lightning strikes from these storms have caused many recent fires in California. So although the gender reveal caused 10,000 acres to be set ablaze in California, it seems very tiny compared to 2.3 million acres that are currently on fire from climate change. 

How big?- 

The west coast fires are extremely large. As of now there are roughly 28 wildfires burning just in California. This year 7,900 wildfires have burned in California. An average wildfire burns 130 acres, so due to the tremendous amount of wildfires this year in California 3.3 million acres have been destroyed and burned. Oregon is another example of how big the west coast fires are. For example, the largest wildfire in Oregon in the 1900s burned 261,000 acres and now the fire currently active in Oregon has burned almost 1 million acres of land. Washington also has lost lots of land due to how large these fires are. Washington alone has lost 800,000 acres of land due to its wildfires. Wildfires itself are not too large, yet many occurring at the same time cover an extremely large distance. 

How are the wildfires being taken care of?- 

Wildfires, such as the ones happening in the west coast, take many steps in order to control and stop them. A typical step that everyone sees on mainstream media when wildfires occur is simplifying putting water on the fire. Many people also see the planes dropping a pink colored product near the fires, but what is it and how is it useful? The pink colored stuff is a type of retardant. That specific retardant is used to contain wildfires. It may seem like these planes usually put the retardant on the fire, yet it is actually dropped ahead of the flames. This is to prevent the fire from spreading. Control lines are also used to stop the spread. Control lines can be many things, such as roads and rivers, they just have to simply be free of vegetation. This is a few ways the wildfires are being controlled. 

The wildfires impact- 

The west coast fires have caused lots of devastating damages. Currently 50,000 people in Oregon have been relocated and evacuated. Ten people have already been killed by this fire, some even being children. The air quality in parts of Oregon is extremely unsafe. This unsafe air pollution from this fire can cause a lot of damage, such as respiratory and cardiovascular problems if breathed in. Many buildings and homes have been burned down as well. The impact of the Oregon wildfires, as well as the other states wildfires, have caused many people grief, confusion, and several health problems, which just shows how large the impact of these fires truly is. 

The El Dorado fire in California was started by a gender reveal party gone wrong. Some smoke from the pyrotechnic device, in this case it was a firework used to reveal the gender of a baby was dispersed in a field of dry grass in El Dorado Ranch Park, in Yucaipa, CA. The video of this incident is being held by fire officials, as they are investigating the start of the fire. According to cnn.com, “...at least three laws that were violated, including "igniting the land" and arson…” and this means that the perpetrators could have different penalties.

Effects that they are having:

Because the blazes all over the state, California is currently in a state of emergency as of August 18. They have been in this state for almost a month. The air is heavily polluted with smoke and ash, especially the east side of the state because of the jet stream. There are also extreme weather conditions in the state, making the lack of rain even worse. 

Record setting fires:

The August Complex fire in California is the largest the firefighters have seen in California history. It has been burning for over a month(31 days) and has consumed 839,175 acres of the California land as of today. This fire will just keep growing, as it is only 30% contained by firefighters working on fighting this blaze. 

Whats happening in the sky:

 The smoke from these fires is so immense that it has been carried all over the country. The jet stream pulls the smoke east and that is why it has been hazy in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Some would think that San Francisco has the worst air quality at this time because it is between the SCU Lightning Complex Fire and the LNU Lightning Complex Fire. According to the 2020 Statewide Summary by Cal Fire, these are the second(SCU) and third(LCU) largest fires burning in the state at this time. They are creating quite a lot of smoke between the two of them and that is not good for the air quality. The place where the air quality is the worst is in Mammoth Lakes-Gateway HC, Mono, California. This is pictured on the map below and it is marked with the “999” label on it. The smoke is traveling to the east and this is near both of the fires and so it is getting hit hardest with smoke from the blazes. Smoke from all of the fires in California is turning the entirety of the west coast’s sky a burnt orange color, making it very ominous.

Cal Fires says that the fires started earlier this year because of the climate change and warmer Spring and Summer temperatures. They estimated that it increased by 75 days across the Sierras and has something to do with an increase of forest fires across the state. Many people think the fires started because of a baby shower, it could have been the baby shower or the climate change. Since California has been really hot lately it would make sense.

 https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/

Where:

There is a lot of fires in the west coast. The biggest fires are happening in California, Oregon, and Washington. There’s also fires burning in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, and Montana. A major fire is also burning in Idaho burning 27,000 acres. In California there is about 28 major fires burning. This year there has been about 3.3 acres of land burned within the west coast and over 4,100 structures destroyed, which is almost bigger than Connecticut. In Northern California, the Mendocio National Forrest with the August Complex Fire is now the largest record in history.

 https://www.thecut.com/2020/09/california-oregon-washington-fires-live-updates.html

Why:

They haven’t been putting out the fires yet. The thing have been doing though, is trying to steer them away from homes and people. Another reason is because of funding. The U.S. Forrest Service might not have enough money to fund for buying things to help put the fire out. They have been trying to use the funding to stop the fires to going to neighborhoods. Apparently one of the main reasons is, the government is supposed to be helping fund equipment for the firefighters to help stop the fires.

When:

These fires have happened before but there starting to start earlier each year. This year the fires started at around September 5th. There is still dozens of fires burning in North America. And as of September 17th, there are 3000 firefighters helping to contain the fires and trying to keep them away from people. Also as of September 17th, they think they found over 57 un-contained fires and 4 contained fires burning in around 10 states.

HOW IT STARTED AND GREW:

To add to the occurring global pandemic, wildfires have been havocking California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and other states on the West Coast. It all started by strikes of lightning from an intense thunderstorm mixing with dry, drought-suffering land. Climate change had a large effect on the creation and spread of the fires. With the temperatures rising, vegetation is more dry and flammable, which the wildfires feed on to spread. Several big fires have joined together in complexes. That has been contributing to the quick spread, as well as the vigorous efforts to control and put out them. Some methods of stopping or controlling wildfires are spraying water, creating backfires, and removing vegetation to "starve it from fuel." Despite those methods, the wildfires have grown out of control across west coast states.

NORTH COMPLEX AND AFTERMATH:

To focus on a specific fire complex, let's look at the North Complex. It started on August 17, 2020, due to a small fire from lightning, then grew and combined with Claremont, Bear, and other fires into a complex. As of now, approximately 280,775 acres have been burned, but only about 36% of it is contained. The location is at the Flemmings Sheep Camps in the Plumas National Forest. Counties it has spread to include Plumas, Butte, Yuba, and Lassen. Evacuations have been announced all over those counties, and people are sheltering in centers for their safety. Firefighters are still at it, trying to put out the fires to this day.

EFFECTS ON PEOPLE:

Aside from the deaths from the wildfires, the aftermath and effects of these wildfires have caused big changes in people's lives. Due to the immense amount of smoke, air quality has become unhealthy for the past few days in many states. Areas like Portland, Oregon have an AQI recognized as hazardous. Smoke is made out of carbon dioxide and other harmful chemicals and gases, which can create health problems for those who inhale it. Many communities have had to evacuate into group shelters or other areas away from the wildfires. That is causing concerns about exposure and COVID-19 spread. 

SMOKE IN NORTHEAST:

Hazy skies with an orange halo around the Sun have been spotted in the Northeast, on the other side of the country. Strong wind currents have carried the smoke of the wildfires all the way from the West Coast to here. Thankfully, the smoke is very high up in the atmosphere. Since it isn't at ground level, there should be no harm to our health. As of today, a cold front from Canada has been expected to shift the smoke south and clear the skies here in New Jersey and other northeast states.

 

The California wildfires started from extreme weather conditions. First there was a record breaking continuing heat wave across the state. Next, a tropical storm in the Pacific Ocean spun moisture toward California, triggering a rare lightning storm that zapped California more than 10,800 times over a three-day period, sparking small fires across the Bay Area and northern California. Then, the humidity dropped and the winds picked up, stoking the small flames until they erupted into full-blown infernos. Some of these fires started to merge, and they started to feed off of each other's energy and that just made the fires spread faster.

    The smoke from the wildfires is being caught in the atmospheric jet stream and is being carried across the United States. The wildfire smoke is causing the sky on the east coast to look hazy and foggy. The intense heat from the wildfires lofted the carbon monoxide high into the atmosphere, and the jet stream has carried all of that smoke all over the U.S.A. This fog can stay in the sky for months and can be transported really far, and that is really bad for the earth and our environment. The carbon monoxide in the air is playing a big role in both air pollution and climate change. 

    Wildfires affect animals mainly through effects on their habitat. Wildfires can cause increases in wildlife food that can cause an increase in an animal's population. These increases are based on the animals ability to survive in that postfire environment. Animal species are adapted to survive the wildfire’s because of their sense’s and because of their characterized habitat from past experiences. When the amount of fire increases and the fire severity levels change, habitats for many animals will decline. Animals know how to get out of their homes when there are wildfires. Most animals simply run, fly, or swim away to take cover from these raging fires. Wildfires can kill individual animals, but they don't destroy populations or species. In most wildfires wildlife remain unharmed, and they may benefit from the thinned landscaped and less competition from the wildfires. 

    Landscapes after a wildfire can look pretty bad especially with all of the burned trees, plants, and pretty much the entire burnt landscape. Even though wildfires can destroy and burn down land, they can also have some positive effects as well. In fact, burned trees from the result of the wildfire can be used for a new purpose. Burned trees can provide nesting sites for birds, homes for small mammals, and a base for new plants to grow. Burned trees can also be salvaged and sold, along with other forests products, supporting active land management and surrounding communities. When the dead trees begin to decay, it releases nutrients in the soil, enhancing growth of the surrounding flora. Wildfires can also be very damaging to natural areas as well. When wildfires burn too hot, they can burn the land and plants might struggle to regrow. This can negatively impact wildlife and the riparian areas. The benefits from harm can vary from one plant community to another. In the United States, all ecosystems have been affected to some degree by wildfires. 

By: Khushpreet Kaur