Wildfires

"If we didn't have to worry about this coronavirus I'd give you a big hug," one of the firefighters said. "How about an air high five."

“But the forest is not gone,” Laura McLendon said. “It will regrow. Every old-growth redwood I’ve ever seen, in Big Basin and other parks, has fire scars on them. They’ve been through multiple fires, possibly worse than this.”

It’s not something Cal Fire or law enforcement condones, but with limited official resources, the residents say they felt like they had to do something.

Inmate firefighters feel they've been forgotten by the California Department of Corrections and forced to keep battling wildfires as prisoners convicted of similar or more serious crimes are let out of prison early amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Santa Cruz fire is one of three “complexes,” or groups of fires, burning on all sides of the San Francisco Bay Area. All were started by lightning.

The threat of Thunderstorms is the chief concern, Cal Fire said.

Danger loomed with the threat of thunderstorms and lightning forecast for Sunday that could spark new fires and overwhelm firefighters battling hundreds of fires throughout the state.

A dog trainer and rancher from Solano County who said she has lived through 14 fires lost dozens of horses and baby goats in the LNU Lightning Complex Fire, one of the largest wildfires burning in California.

Some fires burning in that area were eating up the earth as fast as 1,000 acres an hour. 

Footage taken by a Twitter user named @PocketNihilist  showed the hazy and smoky conditions, as farm workers were worked near a farm plow. 

Known as the LNU Lightning Complex Fire, the biggest blaze of the group is the Hennessey Fire burning in Napa County. That particular fire has burned 105,000 acres and is  0% contained.

The U.S. Forest Service expects to have full control Monday of the Apple Fire, which broke out in Cherry Valley more than two weeks ago and quickly spread into the San Bernardino National Forest.