By Anirudh Chakravarthy ’24

Every year, California heats up. Fires start. Wind blows. This year, northern California got many particularly nasty fires. The wildfires burned buildings and gave a blow to the wine industry. Stories emerged of how many people escaped the fire by being quick thinkers. But, let’s start off with the facts.

When California enters the dry season, fires start quite often. But California also gets wind in the dry season. The fires spread, covering many acres of land, burning through everything. The wind picks up the fire, and drops it in another place, which makes the fires in California hard to contain. There were some staggering facts from CNN. The amount of land burned by the fires in Napa and Sonoma was three times larger than Washington D.C. Over 122,000 acres of rich land burned. The air pollution was the worst in Northern California history. According to CNN, the air quality is considered “very unhealthy” when the index is 201. At one point of time, Napa had an air score of 486. 43 people dead, with many more injured. But even through all the tragedy, the firefighters kept fighting. The brave men and women fighting the fires neared 100% containment this week.

The stories also showed the heroics of so many people. Jan, 65, and John Pascoe, 70, woke up to their daughter calling them to evacuate. The  ran out to the front but they were met by a wall of flames. They dashed to their neighbors backyard and jumped in the pool while their neighborhood burned to the ground. They waited for 6 hours. Luckily, John and Jan Pascoe survived by using their instincts.