California Wildfires Reach Troubling Milestone, Exceed 4 Million Acres Burned

By Dana Cruz Oct 05 2020, 05:20 AM EDT

California wildfires set a grim new record on Sunday after officials announced that it had scorched a record-breaking four million acres this year.

The more troubling part is that wildfires continue to burn across California as the fire season is far from over.

Burning down four million acres this early into the year is an unexpected figure for California. This area is already bigger than the state of Connecticut. It is also more than double the previous record for the most land burned in a single year in the state.

"The 4 million mark is unfathomable. It boggles the mind, and it takes your breath away," said Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean, adding that the number will still grow.

Historic Fire Season

This year's fire season has proven itself a historical one. More than 8,200 California wildfires sparked, killing 31 people and burning down 6,250 miles of land as of Sunday.

The blazes also took down more than 8,400 buildings, said an Associated Press report.

Cal Fire noted that all recording figures on large fires since 1933 have stayed well below the four million acre mark until now. The previous record was set at 1.67 million acres from two years ago, reported CBS News.

There are about 17,000 firefighters still fending off the flames throughout the state.

Despite reaching this milestone, this weekend is still no time to be optimistic.

"Please be cautious outdoors," the agency reminded.

It was also during this year when the largest, most destructive blazes occurred since mid-August. Lightning strikes and hot weather added to the scorching daily life of people in California and stoked the fires.

In Northern California, the largest wildfire in state history happened with the nearly one million-acre August Complex fire. This fire complex is burning across six counties.

So far, the August Complex fire has been 51 percent contained, the NBC News reported.

Wildfires Take Toll on Californians

A large amount of fires also meant many health and security issues for those living near the flames. They experienced a degree of misery with unhealthy air quality as the smoke grew so dense.

The skies across California were blurred for days and even blocked the sun at times.

Last month, California experienced a severe heatwave that fueled some fires and caused much more air pollution that it seeped indoors. The event prompted a sellout of air purifiers in stores all over the state.

However, there were signs for optimism despite Sunday's grim milestone. Powerful winds that were expected to drive flames recently did not materialize. A layer of fog rolled into the state, and warnings of extreme fire danger died out Saturday morning.

The clear skies allowed large air tankers to drop retardant on the fires, helping conditions in the past few days.

"In certain areas, we were able to get quite a bit of aircraft in," said Mclean.

The fire crews took advantage of the situation and pounded different areas from the skies.

"If the weather does what is predicted, we're on that glide path I hope," said Mclean, adding that there is still much more work to be done.

Cal Fire meteorologist Tom Bird believed that the change in weather will likely happen in three or four days, and only then can a difference be felt in the weather.