The widespread wildfires in California have claimed 20 lives as of Friday, according to state fire management agency Cal Fire. A spokesman for the bureau told The Los Angeles Times, “In total, there have been 20 fatalities on this series of fires that have been burning since Aug. 15.” He said the deaths were “a very, very sad and tragic loss for all Californians.” The North Complex fire in far Northern California alone has killed 10 people, the most of any this year. More than a dozen are still reported missing. The blazes have burned more than 3.1 million acres and tens of thousands of structures, the highest of any recorded fire season, and Governor Gavin Newsom warned that the peak of the seasonal disasters is yet to come. Fires are burning millions of acres in Oregon and Washington as well, smothering the West Coast in heavy, apocalyptic smoke.
