Astonishing photos from 2020 California wildfires show hills, homes, redwoods ablaze
Astonishing images from the LNU and CZU lightning complexes in Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Yolo, Solano, Santa Cruz, and San Mateo counties in Northern California.
TOPSHOT - An aircraft drops fire retardant on a ridge during the Walbridge fire, part of the larger LNU Lightning Complex fire as flames continue to spread in Healdsburg, California on August 20, 2020. - A series of massive fires in northern and central California forced more evacuations as they quickly spread August 20, darkening the skies and dangerously affecting air quality. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Josh Edelson—AFP/Getty Images
The coronavirus pandemic, a global economic downturn, protests against racism and police brutality—as if 2020 weren’t stressful enough, Mother Nature decided to turn up the heat.
A new rash of wildfires ripped across Northern California this month, ravaging broad swaths of land adjacent to one of the most populous metropolitan areas—the San Francisco Bay Area—in the U.S. (For more detail, see the San Francisco Chronicle’s handy fire map here.) The resulting smoke, hazardous to breathe, blanketed the region.
Though the Golden State is no stranger to fire, the phenomenon has become more frequent—and by extension, more dangerous—than ever before. Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service estimated that last year’s fire season burned some 260,000 acres across nearly 8,000 fires in both northern and southern California. The year prior was even worse: 2018’s wildfire season was the deadliest and most destructive such season ever recorded in California, with 1.9 million acres burned.
This year’s fire season, which usually stretches from August to November, is only beginning—and the effects of the continued pandemic remain to be seen. (One thing we do know: There will be fewer firefighters this year because many prison inmates who work fire lines for wages and lighter sentences have come down with Covid-19.)
Still, early-season fires have already devastated towns across northern California, damaging homes and businesses and disrupting communities that have already been disrupted by pandemic stay-at-home measures.
Here’s a look at what has happened (so far):
Firefighters battle flames of the Hennessy Fire on Aug. 19 in Vacaville, Calif., about 35 miles from Sacramento and 55 miles from San Francisco.
Kent Nishimura—Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
The LNU Lightning Complex fire—affecting Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Yolo, and Solano counties in California’s wine country—burns in the ridges near Healdsburg on Aug. 21.
Ray Chavez—MediaNews Group/The Mercury News/Getty Image
The LNU fire jumps Interstate 80—which connects Sacramento with Oakland and San Francisco—as cars are stopped in Vacaville, Calif. on Aug. 19. The lightning-sparked wildfires burned out of control in several counties amid a punishing heat wave that pushed temperatures into the triple digits.
Philip Pacheco—Bloomberg/Getty Images
Firefighters from the Vacaville Fire Protection District prepare to combat flames on Aug. 19 to prevent the fire from crossing Gibson Canyon Road in Solano County, Calif.
Joel Rosenbaum—MediaNews Group/Vacaville Reporter/Getty Images
A Vacaville Fire Department firefighter performs a backfiring operation in a field along Nelson Road in Lagoon Valley on Aug. 19 after the LNU fire jumped Interstate 80.
Joel Rosenbaum—MediaNews Group/Vacaville Reporter/Getty Images
An Aug. 20 photo of vehicles destroyed by the LNU fire in Vacaville, Calif.
David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images
The LNU fire burns a hillside behind the Canyon Creek Resort in Winters, Yolo County, Calif. in the early morning of Aug. 20.
Anda Chu—MediaNews Group/East Bay Times/Getty Images
An Aug. 23 photo of scorched wine bottles and charred remains at La Borgata Winery from the LNU fire in Vacaville, Calif.
Josh Edelson—AFP/Getty Images
Gina Santos cries in her car after evacuating her home to escape the LNU fire in Vacaville, Calif. on Aug. 19.
Gabrielle Lurie—The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
Evacuees Sharon Whitaker (left) and daughter Shawnee Whaley (center) take refuge at the Red Cross Shelter at the Ulatis Cultural Center on Aug. 19 after escaping the LNU fire in Vacaville, Calif.
Gabrielle Lurie—The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
Austin Giannuzzi cries while embracing family members at the burned remains of their home on Aug. 23 during the LNU Lightning Complex fire in Vacaville, Calif.
Josh Edelson—AFP/Getty Images
An aircraft drops fire retardant on a ridge during the Walbridge fire, part of the larger LNU Lightning Complex fire as flames continue to spread in Healdsburg on August 20th.
Josh Edelson—AFP/Getty Images
A structure burns in a residential neighborhood in Bonny Doon, Calif., about 13 miles from Santa Cruz and 45 miles from San Jose, on the morning of Aug. 20.
Dai Sugano—MediaNews Group/The Mercury News/Getty Images
Hand crews work on a hillside above the Boulder Creek Community Church on Aug. 23 as the fire line creeps up on Highway 9, which connects Santa Cruz and San Jose, during the CZU Lightning complex fire in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties.
Kent Nishimura—Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Smoke hangs low in the air at Big Basin Redwoods State Park as some redwoods burn on Aug. 22 in Boulder Creek, Calif.—about 14 miles from Santa Cruz. The CZU Lightning Complex fire tore through the 118-year-old state park, California’s oldest.
Kent Nishimura—Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
The Big Basin Redwoods State Park Headquarters & Visitor Center, built in 1936 and pictured here on Aug. 22, was one of the structures lost to the CZU Lightning Complex blaze.
Kent Nishimura—Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Firefighters from Barstow, Calif.—in San Bernardino County near Los Angeles—put down hotspots along Highway 9 during the CZU Lightning Complex fire near Santa Cruz.
(Kent Nishimura—Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Carlos Carpenter and his son Kerry use a chainsaw on a fallen tree blocking Swanton Road in Davenport, Santa Cruz County, Calif. on Aug. 20. They returned to see if the house they built 25 years ago had survived the CZU Lightning Complex fire; it did not.
Karl Mondon—MediaNews Group/The Mercury News/Getty Images
Heavy smoke from nearby wild fires covers the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco on Aug. 20.
