In California, at least 40 people have died, hundreds are missing, and thousands of homes have been destroyed by uncontrollable wildfires. More than 11,000 firefighters are battling the wildfires, with the support of hundreds of fire engines and dozens of helicopters and airplanes. Many of the firefighters are prisoners, who are working for as little as $1 a day. Among the victims of the wildfires were elderly residents of Sonoma County, where authorities say their bodies were so charred, the only way to identify some of them was by the serial numbers on artificial joints or other medical devices. We speak with Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and author of Weather West, the California Weather Blog.
TRANSCRIPT
AMY GOODMAN: “Inferno” by Ivan Karamazov, a musician from Sonoma County who sent us that song from Northern California. This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, as we go to California, where raging wildfires fueled by — fires have raged at least — have killed at least 40 people, destroyed thousands of homes and businesses and scorched more than 200,000 acres — roughly the size of New York City. The fires are now the deadliest in California since record keeping began. At least 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate, with about 75,000 still displaced. Some residents had to flee for their lives as drought conditions and powerful, erratic winds have contributed to the explosive spread of fires. This is Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott.
FIRE CHIEF KEN PIMLOTT: We are still impacted by five years of drought. With the significant rain that we had last winter, those effects are gone of that moisture, and we are literally looking at explosive vegetation. These fires are burning actively during the day and at night, when one would expect a fire to subside. And make no mistake: This is a serious, critical, catastrophic event.
AMY GOODMAN: More than 11,000 firefighters are battling the wildfires, with the support of hundreds of fire engines, dozens of…