The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection lifted evacuation warning orders in Santa Clara County Tuesday, as firefighters get a hold on the Northern California wildfires that have been burning since mid-August.
The Santa Clara Unit (SCU) Lightning Complex fire is 72% contained, the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit (LNU) Lightning Complex fire is 74% contained and the Santa Cruz Mountains (CZU) Lightning Complex fire is 45% contained as of Tuesday, according to the Cal Fire Twitter page.
“We have over 15,000 firefighters working the lines and crew, dozers, fire engines, traditional engines, every conceivable asset that we have,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a Aug. 26 news conference.
Cal Fire reported that the SCU and LNU Lightning Complex fires are currently the second and third largest wildfires in California, respectively.
The historic Northern California fires might have slowed down, but more than 850,000 acres have burned, according to the Cal Fire website.
Gov. Newsom lauded the efforts of brave firefighters during the news conference.
“We are putting every single asset we possibly can, every conceivable resource to battle these historic wildfires,” he said.
Newsom said California is making use of its resources and mutual aid with the help of other states like Kansas, Montana, Washington and Oregon.
“We are grateful again to the leadership of those states for assembling their assets and providing them in a timely manner to supplement our firefighting resources,” Newsom said.
“Just in the last 24 hours, to put things into perspective, we had 423 lightning strikes, primarily dry lightning strikes . . . 50 new fires overnight,” Newsom said, adding as of Aug. 26 that all 50 fires had been effectively suppressed.
He said lightning strikes are seen almost on an hourly basis, giving insight into the challenges firefighters face trying to mitigate the flames.
In the news conference, Newsom also addressed the deaths caused by the fires.
“Tragically, we have lost seven individuals,” he said. “As we get back in and once the fires are suppressed and we start seeing repopulation we are likely to discover additional fatalities.”
Newsom also commented on the damages caused by the fires to various parts of the state.
“We have identified just shy of 1,700 structures that have been destroyed and we anticipate that number to grow substantially in the coming days and coming weeks,” he said.
Cal Fire stated on Twitter yesterday that a hot and dry weather forecast is expected throughout Labor Day weekend, but that it expects the SCU Lightning Complex fire, which affects Santa Clara County, to be fully contained by Sept. 3 according to a Tuesday incident update.
