Fires continue to grow in Northern California, continuing the state’s historic, devastating fire season after record-breaking blazes swept the state in August.
California’s fires this year have “broken almost every record there is to break,” the state’s firefighting agency, Cal Fire, tweeted on Tuesday. Fires have burned more than 3.8 million acres so far this year, more than five times the average of 740,000 acres burned by this time in the past five years, according to the agency.
Five of the six largest fires in California history have occurred this year.
As of Tuesday, there were over 18,700 firefighters battling 27 major fires across the state.
One of the major blazes currently burning, the Zogg fire in Northern California’s Shasta County, has killed at least three people, destroyed over 140 homes and other structures, and is currently 0% contained.
Another big blaze, the Glass fire in Napa and Sonoma counties, has torched over 42,000 acres, destroying dozens of homes and spurring evacuations for the entire city of Calistoga, part of St. Helena and other areas in wine country. That fire is also 0% contained. Some of the homes threatened and people forced to flee are in Santa Rosa, a community devastated by deadly wildfires just three years ago.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency for Sonoma, Napa and Shasta counties over the weekend.
“New wildfires have exploded in Northern California over the weekend,” Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.), who is the Democratic vice presidential nominee, tweeted Monday. “This historic wildfire season isn’t close to being over.”