California Plagued by Worst Wildfires in History

By Jade Smith

November 14, 2018 - Greenville, New York News

On Thursday, November 8th, an outbreak of flames engulfed the wooded part of Butte County in California. This fire started at about 6:30 am. This inferno would continue, like the Woolsey Fire which was in relatively close proximity. The cause of the flames is unknown, with speculation of power supply company, PG&E’s power lines being blown by the wind. PG&E reported an outage on Thursday at 2:22 PM, only 2 minutes before the fire went ablaze.  The dry brush, high winds, and high temperature of California create the perfect breeding ground for a forest fire. Overall, it could take months for investigators to assess what may have started the fire. As with the Tubbs Fire, which leveled entire Santa Rosa neighborhoods last October, is still being investigated today. This fire has been named “The Camp Fire” due to its commencing location.

Since The Camp Fire began, it has completely decimated an entire small town called Paradise, including 18,733 buildings; 13,972 being homes. The fire’s current death toll stands at 88 people, as well as 3 severely injured firefighters, and left 203 people missing. This wildfire was one of the largest in decades, argued to be even the largest ever. It covered 153,336 acres of land in California. As it can be assumed, people evacuated homes by the thousands. Cars were burned and bodies were charred during the process for many. Most victims were not even identifiable, resulting in an increase of missing people.

This fire resulted in mass destruction and caused terror over California until November 25th, when it was officially announced that the Camp Fire had been 100% contained. 18 days of flames leaves the firefighters claiming they’ll be continuing to check the site for the next several months to completely ensure containment.