In some shelters, thousands of people fleeing the raging flames — sometimes in the dead of the night — must weigh the risk of coronavirus infections.
“Not only are we dealing with Covid, but with also the heat and now the fires,” said Cheryl Jarvis, who evacuated to a community center in Vacaville but refuses to go inside for fear of coronavirus infections. She has been sleeping in her Toyota Prius, and has no idea whether her house is still standing. “We are experiencing fires, the likes of which we haven’t seen in many, many years,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. Fires have scorched more acres than last year Statewide, there have been more than 360 recent fires — most of them sparked by lightning. Several of those fires have merged and continue to spread, in part due to high temperatures, inaccessible terrain and limited resources. The 22 major blazes still burning have scorched a total of 660,000 acres across the state, said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director of Cal Fire. They have destroyed or damaged 660 structures. They include two major fires — the LNU Lightning Complex and the SCU Lightning Complex — both comprising a combination of blazes burning in the same area. By early Friday, they had torched 215,000 acres and 157,475 acres, respectively. The blazes have caused more deaths and destruction so far this year than all of 2019. Wildfires charred a total of 260,000 acres and killed three people in the state all of last year, according to Cal Fire. Several global air quality monitoring websites show that the air quality levels in the Bay Area of California are worse than anywhere else, including locations generally regarded as having the poorest air quality such as India and eastern China. Deaths reported in various counties At least four deaths were reported Thursday as a result of the LNU fire — the largest burning in the state. It consists of at least 11 smaller fires stretching across five counties in Northern California. Three of the deaths are from Napa County and one is from Solano County. In addition to the fatalities, four others were injured, Cal Fire said in a statement Thursday.
