Fighting Fires Zoe Mast
In December 2017, more than 50 massive fires raged along the California coast and destroyed countless homes, properties, and lives. The biggest of these fires was the Thomas Fire, which started on December 4, 2017. The Thomas Fire burned more than 280,000 acres of Southern California, which is comparable to the entire Washington DC metro area. In total, it destroyed 1,063 structures and killed one firefighter. Fun Fact: Fires are given names based on the places where they are burning, unlike hurricanes, which are given female or male names on rotation. For example, the Thomas fire started near Thomas Aquinas College outside Santa Paula. These fires were especially bad because of the drought California has been going through and the strong Santa Ana winds blowing and causing the flames to spread. These types of fires require lots of manpower to extinguish and thanks to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, all the fires are now contained.
These types of mighty fires require a lot more than just a fire hose and some water. There are a few ways to put out wildfires, but the main two are hotshots and smokejumpers. Smokejumpers jump out of planes and direct water toward the fire, fighting it from within, while hotshots go in from the ground and suppress the wildfires as much as they can. Another useful way to combat raging wildfires is to build a fireline. Firefighters do this by using a Pulaski, a combination between an ax and hoe, to dig and clear a line where there is no debris so the fire has no fuel to continue burning. Air tankers are also used to dump gallons and gallons of water and fire retardant on wildfires from above. Fires only burn when they have fuel, oxygen, and heat. A firefighters job is to eliminate one, two, or all three sides of the fire triangle to stop the flames. Only then will they have success.
The 2017 California wildfires did a lot of damage to buildings and properties. A total of 9,133 fires burned throughout the state. The total fatality count was 46 people: 1 firefighter and 45 civilians. 211 people were injured, including 12 firefighters and 199 civilians. These wildfires cost California a whopping $13.028 billion USD. Thankfully. every single one of these fires have been successfully put out and steps are being taken to ensure that natural disasters of this size never happen again.