Energy

California’s Deadliest Week Of Wildfires By The Numbers

https://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/

Deadly fires have been sweeping through California since Oct. 8, causing mass evacuations and turning hundreds of thousands of acres to ash.

Last week was the most deadly that California has ever experienced in terms of lives lost to wildfire, and it was also an overwhelmingly destructive week. Here are the numbers:

• 40 people are dead, though that number is expected to rise as search crews continue to case burned down houses, according to CNN.
• About 200 people are still reported missing.
• More than 11,000 firefighters from California and surrounding states are fighting the fires and canvasing rubble.
• An estimated 217,000 acres, or 340 square miles, have been burned.
• An estimated 5,700 buildings have burned down, including homes and business.
• Wind gusts as high as 60 mph quickly drove the fires out of control the night of Oct. 8 and were a key factor in the destruction caused, according to ABC News.
• More than 100,000 people were forced to evacuate because of the fires, Axios reports.

Follow Tim Pearce on Twitter