California Wildfire Kills 31 People | Daniella Castanheira

In Northern California, the Camp Fire, which started Thursday, November 8, has killed at least 29 people and scorched 113,000 acres of land. It is the most destructive fire in Californian history and is only 25% contained at this point. In Southern California, The Woolsey Fire has covered more than 91,000 acres and has destroyed 370 structures so far. It is also being called the cause of death to two more people in Malibu, bringing the total death toll to 31. The Hill Fire, also in Southern California, has burned 4,531 acres and is 75% contained. The amount of people displaced is staggering, with over 300,000 people forced from their homes. 100 people are still unaccounted for, and officials say the death toll could rise. According to incident reports, a utility company, PG&E, suffered a transmission line outage 15 minutes before the Camp Fire began. Similarly, SoCal Edison reported a circuit relay two minutes before the fire broke out near the location of the Woolsey Fire's outbreak. However, it is unclear at the moment as to if either company is responsible.

This article was written by Holly Yan, Susannah Cullinane and Emanuella Grinberg of CNN on Monday, November 12. It is written to state the facts about the fires currently blazing in California while also sharing speculation on possible causes and insight on how people directly affected are faring. I had seen posts about the fires before reading this article, but never realized how large the fires are until now. As someone with family in California, seeing continual stories about how destructive these fires are makes me extremely worried for their safety. This reminds me of the dust bowls that struck Texas and Oklahoma in the 1930s, and I hope that these fires aren't as economically and ecologically ruinous as the dust bowls were.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/12/us/california-wildfires-woolsey-camp-hill-missing/index.html