CZU lighting complex fire

FIRES RAGE ACROSS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

By Miriam Raftery

Photo:  Bureau of Land Management image of smoke frm the CZU Lightning Complex Fire threatening Davenport, CA



August 21, 2020  -- Nearly 12,000 firefighters are battling nearly two dozen major fires and complexes across California, Cal Fire reports. Since the lightning siege started on Saturday, August 15, 2020 there have been nearly 12,000 lightning strikes. During this time-period, there have been more than 560 new wildfires, which have burned over 771,00 acres, burned over 660 structures and killed at least five people in northern California, including a former Channel 10 helicopter pilot.

Flames also devastated a historic redwood tree grove in Northern California.  “We are devastated to report that Big Basin State Park, as we have known it, loved it, and cherished it for generations, is gone,” the Sempivirens Fund, which supports the park, posted on Facebook yesterday. “ Early reports are that the wildfire has consumed much of the park’s historic facilities. We do not yet know the fate of the park’s grandest old trees.”

U.C. Santa Cruz has evacuated the campus after flames burned to within a mile of the university.


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