Char for the Course

California wildfires continue to rage

Posted at 12:59 PM on 23 Oct 2007

In case you haven't heard, there are some crazy fires going down in southern California. At the time of this posting, some 400,000 acres have burned, igniting more than 1,500 structures, including some 1,000 homes. An estimated 700,000 people have been evacuated; two have died. The White House has declared a state of emergency, and health officials are urging children, the elderly, and the sick to stay indoors to avoid breathing in soot particles. Guess we'll get an answer to the question we posed last year: "Could a Western wildfire be the country's next Katrina?" Um, we meant it rhetorically.

sources:  Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times
see also, in Grist:  Climate change making wildfires worse, study finds, Wildfires are raging -- why isn't concern about climate change?