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| Santa Rosa, CA is an hour away from San Francisco and the SF Bay Area. Sacramento is two hours away. Yet the fires ranging in Sacramento are an hour away in Yuba City and Auburn, CA where the Sierra Nevada Mountain range begins. |
It has been known for decades that wildfire across California has been consuming the well known forests ie Los Angeles Forest, North Bay's Muir Woods, Yosemite Park the hills and foothills (Sierra Nevada) that protect nearby towns and cities from nature itself. Every summer, the West Cost of the U.S. catches fire. California is no different from the wildfires in Colorado, Montana, Oregon and Washington State. It is also common knowledge that the Earth has been warming thus the hot record breaking summers every year. Along with fears of heat strokes across the world. Some 100 million trees have been destroyed by wildfires. These trees are posing a threat along with downed power lines to towns and the remaining forests. Now the winds from the Pacific Ocean has picked up and blown embers and ashes further South and East to other North Californian regions. This current fire tops the 1964 Hanley Fire in the Santa Rosa area that was far more slow moving but involved the same amount of damage. California may have a Mediterranean climate, but away from the coast most of inland California is arid to borderline desert. Most of Southern California is a desert. The drought and dry air in the South or North has also fueled the fire. Environmental policies meant to avoid massive wildfires of this size has somewhat helped. The smoke and emissions from nearby Richmond Chevron refinery, smog the also contribute to the volatile air quality. oil refineries have been threatened by wildfires in SoCal before. The replacement of dead trees leading to Yosemite Park, Santa Rosa or Oroville with new young trees has been at a snail pace and in most cases not done at all. The mother of all environmental organizations Greenpeace has been absent from the safer areas of the Bay Area or Sacramento. Especially when advocating for fire prevention and tree regeneration since the Tubbs and Sierra Nevada fires near Oroville began. Greenpeace website has no mention of the fires nor any sympathetic notification supporting the victims and survivors of the fires.
Democracy Now: How global warming fueled wildfires and forest destruction
Santa Rosa evacuations from fires
While a few of the fires were started by arsonists or accidentally, most have been caused by the climate itself. California's ongoing drought for the past five years has not helped the current blazes. Teams of fire fighters have been battling the fires with helicopters, on foot and from a distance. The current wildfires are near San Francisco in the neighbouring towns of Santa Rosa, San Rafael, These towns are part of Napa, Menedicino and Sonoma counties. There is also fires near Sacramento in Lake and Butte counties on the Sierra Nevada foothills further up from Auburn, CA. The North Bay fires fueled by Diablo winds has been receiving the most attention since its chewing up the famed Napa Valley wine region. Some wineries have been affected. Mostly homes and businesses belonging to local residents have been destroyed along with 40 people dead and another 130+ people missing. The people living in San Rafeal, Santa Rosa, Napa and Calistoga among other North Bay cities have had to self evacuate on short notices as the fires rage. The fire departments are working overtime. There is also ongoing fires in Anaheim, California affecting hundreds of people and the air quality also. Normally, the wildfires end by the end of summer. Firefighters have noticed that the nature of wildfires have changed signifcantly over the last thirty years becoming deadlier and more uncontrollable than previous fires.
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