For the past three weeks, California has been struggling with keeping the Dixie Fire contained. This is the largest wildfire currently being battled in the US. The fire is spread out for over 600 miles and is less than 25% contained. It is spreading very quickly and firefighters are doing their best to contain the fire from spreading and causing further damage.
Currently, there are over 100 wildfires in several states. Those include California, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, and even Alaska. Not only is the United States struggling with the fires, but Greece is ablaze as well. Many of these fires are being contained, but there are too many to keep track of and have full containment. Majority are at a 40% or less containment. Thousands of people’s homes are destroyed including lots of forests and towns.
Firefighters are working day and night to contain these fires and keep people and wildlife safe, but residents of these states need to listen and evacuate when needed. These fires can abruptly move in a matter of minutes and you can be trapped. The heavy smoke is not safe and as personal belongings can be very sentimental, the best thing to do is grab your family members and pets and evacuate immediately when told to do so.
The heavy smoke is causing Air Quality Alerts for many states and the smoke will be moving along towards the Central and Eastern portions of the United States. If you haven’t seen a little bit of a haze over the blue skies, it will worsen over the next several days.
For any more information about the wildfires in the United States, visit The National Interagency Fire Center website here. You can also see the fire and smoke map from AirNow here.
