Mike Thompson: “The worst fires in the history of California have devastated nearly 300,000 acres, destroyed some 8,000 homes, caused…”

“The worst fires in the history of California have devastated nearly 300,000 acres, destroyed some 8,000 homes, caused billions of dollars in damage, burned to the ground many businesses, and, most sadly, taken the lives of 42 people-- and that number may very well rise. These fires were like no other, propelled by winds that reached speeds of over 70 miles per hour. The worst of the fires were in my district. They moved so fast, burning at times 200 feet per second. That is three football fields every 30 seconds. People had little time to escape their burning homes. They fled with only the clothes on their back and, in some cases, with their homes already in flames. The most covered area on the news is a neighborhood in my district in Santa Rosa called Coffey Park. There, alone, the entire neighborhood, some 1,300 homes, were burned to the ground. The winds were so high that they pushed the blaze across eight lanes of freeway and over two frontage roads to destroy the homes and lives of those 1,300 families. Eleven thousand firefighters, thousands of law enforcement and National Guard soldiers put their lives on the line to stop the raging inferno and protect Californians in the line of the fire. Some of those first responders lost their own homes, but they worked 24/7 to help others. The actions of civilian heroes and heroines saved an untold number of lives. The fallout from this disaster will be felt for years, if not decades.…”