In August 2020, another sequence of wildfires erupted in California due to a lightning strike that started hundreds of fires. The United States and California are not strangers to these wildfires. Since the 1980s, California has been affected by wildfires. According to III (insurance, information, institute), each year, since 1980, millions and millions of acres have been burned by wildfires. In 2019, over 2 million California properties were at risk for destruction in the state of Montana alone. These California wildfires are caused by lightning, especially the ones in 2020. The picture above indicates wildfire damage on August 27th, 2020. These wildfires have inflicted tremendous amounts of damage to California wildlife and residents. Twenty five people died in a week in California, Oregon and Washington wildfires and dozens are still missing. Over three million acres have burned in California this year alone. 

Portland, Oregon has the worst air conditions in the world due to the wildfires. Each year a wildfire happens it costs $1 billion to fix the damage done. However, that is not the only loss. The U.S has lost roughly $16 billion dollars in wildfire damage. Over the years, wildfires have only gotten worse. Not only have they been burning trees, killing animals and people but also polluting the climate in California. It was also raining ashes in California, which can spread to other states and affect the atmosphere. The wildfire emergency is not even close to being over for California. As of yesterday the state only has 47% of all fires contained. The highest contained fire they have is only 76% as of 6:28am. Despite some progress, the fires have been burning for months. 

The fire department can only get 76% of one wildfire contained. This is cause for concern because California is one of the largest states in the country. In the US, California has the most fires, 8,194, which is 2,000+ more than Texas. These fires will most likely continue spreading and burning in 2021 at an even larger rate then they are now. What is the US government doing to get this under control?