Small towns in the west obliterated by fire (Part VI): 4 million acres burned in California

Screenshot from Oct. 5, 2020, coverage
of August Complex fires in far northern California

The past week has brought us lots of coverage of northern California's latest wildfire surges, in far northern California (the August complex fires and the Zogg fire) and the wine country of Napa and Sonoma counties (primarily the Glass Fire).  Just a few days ago, we got word that the state had hit a milestone--a devastating record:  4 million acres burned in a single fire season.  Another overview story is here.  This horrific news is even more striking when you consider that we're only halfway through the 2020 fire season.  And, of course, for purposes of this blog, it is salient to note that the vast majority of these acres burned are rural or, more precisely in most instances, wilderness.  

That said, many of the stories focus on our state's famed wine region, which isn't actually very rural, though some parts are more so than others.  As various journalists have observed, one reason these fires have been so devastating is that they raged through an area that is densely populated--relatively speaking.  In fact, we might think of the parts of St. Helena and Santa Rosa that burned as being examples of rural gentrification. Following are links to some of the stories about these latest wine country fires, including the Glass Fire that destroyed parts of St. Helena and Calistoga.  

This Reuters feature on the wine country fires includes some amazing maps and photography. 

Here's a story from the Sacramento Bee. 

Meanwhile, the August complex fires are also still burning in a much more rural and remote region of the state, in Trinity, Tehama, Mendocino, Lake, Shasta, and Humboldt counties.  This fire, originally a cluster of fires set by lightning strikes, has joined together to form the largest fire ever in the state, covering a million acres.  Here is a collection of stories out of that region. 

This Los Angeles Times story by Anita Chabria is headlined, "Wildfire ravaged this rancher’s cattle and maybe his family legacy. He blames politics."   Here's an excerpt from the piece out of Butte County about a rancher named Dave Daley: 

Three weeks ago, a windy night turned the Bear fire into another California catastrophe, pulling embers off the ground and into the air, across the river, through treetops and down these mountains to the towns of Feather Falls and Berry Creek, where at least 15 people died. Here, in dense woods, Daley’s 400 head of cows, many with calves in tow, ranged free in summer, as they had done for the six generations his family has ranched on this land.

In about 1882, Daley’s family started running cows up into this high country, back before there was a National Forest system, and their brand has grandfathered access — though some environmentalists believe cattle have no place on public lands.

Now, only a bitter smell and ravens circling overhead could signal where many of their burned carcasses lay, blending into a dismal palette of ash and charcoaled timber. Though Daley and his family search every day for survivors, only about 130 have turned up alive — some so badly injured, with udders, hooves and even legs seared off, that they have to be put down. An additional 100 have been found dead.

Consumed by guilt that he couldn’t save them, and fear that some may still be suffering, he’s scouring what’s left of trails and tracks with names such as Lava Top and Bear Wallow that he probably knows better than any person alive, having roamed them since he was a boy. Friday was Day 22.

“The live ones are live and the dead ones are dead,” he said with cowboy pragmatism. “But the injured ones are missing.”

Here's a general story from Oct. 5 in the Los Angeles Times noting the million acres now burned.  

I've seen two stories about the threat the August Complex Fire poses to marijuana growers in the so-called Emerald Triangle.  One story is from the Post-Democrat in Sonoma County, and the other, from the Los Angles Times, I featured in this prior post.     

Meanwhile, the New York Times ran this story out of Talent, Oregon, one of the southern Oregon towns obliterated by the September fires in that state.  The journalist is Isobel Whitcomb, and the focus is on the consequences of the fires for one LatinX family, in particular the impact on the children's education, now conducted remotely with a school-issued Chromebook as the family has taken shelter in a motel room. 

Also, some news coverage has attended to the issue of how Native Americans historically handled fire suppression.  Here's one from Capital Public Radio and one from the New York Times.

And CalMatters ran this story about the need to get more Californians signed up for emergency alerts, though I question the efficacy of these alerts in areas without cell service and/or broadband.