California’s Mendocino Complex Fire is finally under control, after burning an area larger than most major cities on the planet.
The biggest fire in the state’s history burned for three months and torched 1,858 square kilometres (717 square miles) in Northern California before it was fully contained on Wednesday, officials said. The fire killed one firefighter, destroyed 157 homes and forced thousands to evacuate Mendocino, Lake, Colusa and Glenn counties. The original cause is unknown.
The staggering size of the burn scar is large enough to cover all of Los Angeles. It’s also more than twice as large as New York City and three times as big as Toronto.
Here’s how the burned area compares to those cities.
The Mendocino Complex was actually two separate fires burning in the same lightly populated area around Clear Lake, a forested region approximately 175 kilometres (109 miles) north of San Francisco. The Ranch Fire burned through the Mendocino National Forest north and east of the lake, while the smaller River Fire scorched the land to the west, near Lakeport.
The Mendocino blaze grew to become the largest in state history in early August, despite the efforts of nearly 4,000 firefighters who were called in to curb the destruction.
WATCH BELOW: Firefighters watch a fire tornado swallow a hose
The Thomas Fire previously held the record for the largest wildfire in California, after it ripped through Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in December 2017. The Thomas Fire burned 1,106 square kilometres (427 square miles) of land and killed two people, including a firefighter. It’s also been blamed for 21 indirect deaths caused by mudslides in 2018.
WATCH BELOW: Aerial footage shows the raging Thomas Fire
Fires in the California region have scorched 6,145 square kilometres (2,373 square miles), according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center. Wildfires have burned up nearly twice that amount of land in British Columbia, amid a particularly devastating wildfire season. The province reports that 13,490 square kilometres (5,209 square miles) of land has been burned this year.
California Gov. Jerry Brown warned in August that this is the “new normal” due to climate change.
Scientists broadly support the conclusion that the warming climate is making wildfires worse in North America.
“The warmer it is, the more fire we see,” scientist Mike Flannigan, of the University of Alberta, told the Associated Press last month.
“Hotter, drier weather means our fuels are drier, so it’s easier for fires to start and spread and burn more intensely,” he said.
The time between wildfires in some areas is also getting shorter, according to Jonathan Thompson, a senior ecologist at Harvard University. Thompson says the constant fires are converting forested area to shrub land because there’s not enough time for trees to come back between fires.
“They get stuck in this trap of repeated, high-severity fire,” he told AP.
“Through time, we’ll see the California shrub land shifting north.”
U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration have disputed the notion that climate change is to blame for the increase in wildfires. Trump claimed last month that California’s problems are being magnified by “bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized.”
The president did not offer any evidence to back up his claim.
The following map shows the fires currently burning in California, according to Google data from Thursday.
The state’s firefighting agency reported earlier this month that it’s nearly exhausted its entire budget for the year, with only $11 million left in the coffers. The agency requested an additional $234 million to add firefighters and helicopters, and to cover the costs of more fires expected to break out through the driest stretch of the year.
California’s insurance commissioner says more than 10,000 fire claims totalling more than $845 million have been filed in the state so far this year. That doesn’t include claims filed in December of 2017 after the Thomas Fire devastated approximately 800 homes in the southern part of the state.
Several wildfires are still burning across California, including the Delta Fire, which has scorched approximately 246 square kilometres (95 square miles) near the Oregon border.
WATCH BELOW: Amateur video shows Delta Fire burning out of control
Northern and central parts of the state were under a red flag fire warning on Thursday due to gusty winds, low humidity and dry conditions.
Fires have been ripping through the western United States and Canada throughout the summer. British Columbia declared a province-wide state of emergency last month, due to hundreds of fires burning across the region.
— With files from the Associated Press
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