California will be under a state of emergency this weekend, as more than 300 fires rage across the state.
At least five people have died, …
California will be under a state of emergency this weekend, as more than 300 fires rage across the state. At least five people have died, and as of Friday morning, nearly 600,000 acres were burning in the eight largest fire complexes in the state. This all comes as the state is confronting a record-breaking heat wave. In Death Valley, temperatures reached a scorching 130 degrees earlier this week. Approximately 12,00 firefighters have been battling the blazes, according to Cal Fire. Among them is Jeff Lemelin, the Sonoma County Fire District Battalion Chief. «It’s challenging,» he told NPR’s Weekend Edition. «Usually you don’t know that you’re dehydrated until it’s too late, so you’ve got to constantly be drinking fluids and it’s hard to do the mission that we’re called to do during these times that unfortunately we’ve been faced with in Sonoma County — in particular over the past three years.
