U.S. News

Wildfires Rage on in the West Coast

Major Destruction and Red Skies Cause Thousands to Flee

Editor Ashely Howel

9/16/2020

After years of the world’s atmosphere heating up, mixed in with detrimental storms ravaging and attacking the west coast, wildfires have finally broken out in such a huge mass that life itself on the west coast is being threatened. So far, over 3 million acres of land has been burned, accompanied with over 30 citizens dead. A number of over 4,000 houses and structures have burned, leaving a lot of people out of shelter. Due to the masses of land these fires are consuming, over 500,000 people have fled the states of the coast.

Recently, pictures have also surfaced online depicting the skies as a blood-red tint, many saying they experienced conditions where it was difficult to breathe due to the air and ashes. Some other areas have had yellow skies for days with ash scattered about, along with a wave of heat. Since the air harms residents, it proves even more difficult to cool yourself down, disallowing you to open windows or use non-filtered ways of getting cool air.

The entire west coast is engulfed in flames, ranging from Washington state to California, and now barely reaching over to their neighboring states, like Nevada and Idaho. California is the number one most affected in these events, with the entire state on fire. Very few areas in this situation would remain unaffected by the ash, smoke, or wildfires themselves.

Firefighters from all over the coast are trying to fend off the fires as best as they can, sacrificing themselves and using all they have to halt or at least reduce the spread into other states. Funding and other resources are severely needed to keep the fires from spreading to the US as a whole and endangering the lives of many humans and animals. Preparation is fundamental if this occurs, so it’s best to keep an eye out on anything that can help for the future.