[Content Note: Fire; displacement; death. Video may autoplay at first two links.]
Fourteen fires, the cause(s) of which are still under investigation, have torn across eight counties in North California since last night, displacing thousands of people, damaging thousands of structures, and killing at least one person.
Sonali Kohli, Javier Panzar, and Paige St. John at the LA Times report: "The vast devastation over just a few hours made this firestorm one of the worst in California history, with Gov. Jerry Brown declaring a state of emergency. ...One of the raging fires had Santa Rosa under siege Monday morning, with a large swath of the city north of downtown under evacuation order. ...While many evacuation centers were set up, some were filled to capacity due to the large number of people fleeing. ...Residents described running from the approaching flames early in the morning."
Peter Fimrite, Jill Tucker, Kurtis Alexander, and Demian Bulwa at the San Francisco Chronicle report that the firest have turned "wide swaths of the Wine Country into wastelands of twisted metal and ash as firefighters sought to contain flames super-charged by powerful winds. ...'This is an incredibly fast-moving and dynamic fire,' [Dave Shew, a Cal Fire spokesperson] said. 'We had real severe winds last night when this started. So it burned very, very fast. Our No. 1 priority was life safety. There are some neighborhoods that got hit pretty hard with structures lost. This is an ongoing situation that is not only going to last days but weeks.'"
I wish I had something better to say to people in the affected areas beyond offering my profound sympathies. This is going to be absolutely devastating for a lot of people — and animals — and I am so very sorry.
It's a little early at this point to know exactly how to help: Firefighters are still working on trying to contain and/or extinguish the fires; people are still being evacuated with uncertainty about what damage might be done to their communities.
But, as always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share ideas for helping in comments, and let's keep this an image-free thread. Thanks.
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