The wildfires raging across Northern California have led to the deaths of six more people, bringing the death toll to 21 people. Wednesday morning saw the winds, which had calmed some Tuesday, pick back up and drive the spread of the fires again to a ferocious pace.
The wildfires are now reported to have consumed more than 2,000 buildings, and new swaths of the region—including densely populated neighborhoods—are falling into mandatory evacuation zones, forcing more than 25,000 people out, and often into the dozens of emergency shelters that have been opened. Many weren’t aware of the wildfire until it was in their neighborhood, Cal Fire chief Ken Pimlott told reporters.
The wildfires continue to besiege Sonoma County, where the largest wildfire, called the Tubbs Fire, has grown to 28,000 acres, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Eleven of the 21 deaths occurred in Sonoma County and, according to the Washington Post, around 180 people there are still missing. Six of the other fatalities occurred in Mendocino County, two in Napa County, and two in Yuba County, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Rep. Mike Thompson, from Napa, told reporters he expected the Northern California wildfires to be the “worst disaster in California history,” the Chronicle reported. Vice President Mike Pence announced Tuesday that the Trump had approved the state’s request for federal emergency assistance.
The cause of the wildfires remains unknown, but in such arid and hot conditions, they can be caused by the smallest of sparks. The chairman of California’s Board of Forestry and Fire Protection said Tuesday the state would investigate why so many fires broke out on the same day, according to NBC News. Most wildfires in California are caused by humans.
The winds could pick up even further late Wednesday night, according to NPR, and gusts could again reach 50 miles per hour—the speed that caused the wildfires to become so unmanageably large in the first place. For context, a battalion chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection told NPR that one of the fires spread 16 miles in less than six hours.
This wildfire season has been particularly punishing for California and large parts of the West, where 8 million acres have burned this year, according to the Washington Post. Wildfires currently dot the rest of the state in less dense scatterings. Another fire in Orange County has also burned thousands of acres.
Update, Oct. 11, at 4:18 p.m.: This post has been updated to include new numbers of fatalities.