CA on Fire! Cluster Lightning!!
CA Fires 2020: 1.35M Acres Burn In 700 Fires In Less Than 2 Weeks ~ This past week California has been ablaze with fires all over that strained our Fire Departments with personnel and equipment. What might have 4,000 firefighters attending to fires in certain locations were down to a little over 1000. It all started with a CLUSTER LIGHTNING STORM that hit California for a couple of hours in the Bay Area and throughout California starting fires that created horribly dangerous air quality and alerts to evacuations. Help came from outside of California as well as volunteers though the Correctional Facilities. Since COVID hit us hard in March, the Jail system / Correctional Facilities, were being relieved of it's non violent offenders and those were the ones that were able to fight along side our professional fire fighters. With a lack of volunteers and too many fires to deal with as we would normally expect during fire season, California was in deep trouble. One week from the start of this historical event, we were told to possibly expect a repeat from the storm, which had alerts in two levels. One alert was a mandatory evacuation, and the other to be ready to evacuate if given the order. It came to the edge of Pleasanton (my home town) and Livermore. We got our go bags ready just in case!