Kincade Fire: The Age of Flames Is Consuming California

Right on cue, Northern California has plunged back into wildfire hell. This time two years ago, the Tubbs Fire was ripping through Santa Rosa and other communities north of San Francisco, killing 22 and destroying 5,000 homes. And last year on November 8, the Camp Fire virtually obliterated the town of Paradise, killing 86 and burning an astonishing 20,000 structures to the ground.

The Age of Flames - northern California plunged back into wildfire hell.

Last night at 9:30 pm PT, a wildfire sparked northeast of Healdsburg, a town of over 10,000 just north of San Francisco. Fanned by winds of up to 80 mph, the Kincade Fire tore through the landscape, consuming 16,000 acres in a matter of hours. Thousands have been forced to flee, and it’s barely contained. Early footage of people driving through the area shows the damage is likely extensive, with homes burning along the roadside—the number of structures reported destroyed so far is 49.

Welcome to what fire historian Steve Pyne calls the Pyrocene, a unique time in history when human use of fire, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, and the attendant climate change combine to create hell on Earth. “We are creating a fire age that will be equivalent to the Ice Age,” he says. The reckoning is here, and California—a highly flammable state packed with people—is getting it worse than just about anybody in the world.

Read the story from Wired by Matt Simon - “Kincade Fire: The Age of Flames Is Consuming California.”