Wine Country Times

Recent reports from Cal Fire confirmed the Glass Fire has burned 67,420 acres and consumed 600 homes in Napa and Sonoma counties.

The fire is 62% contained, but 21,000 more homes are under threat, according to Cal Fire as reported by CBS News. 

In Napa, the father and son of the Velazquez family evacuated only 90 minutes before flames reached their house as reported by ABC7. With their family home a total loss and the insurance policy not covering immediate housing, the whole family is technically homeless. 

Mother Catalina Velazquez said it is a nightmare, according to ABC7.  The family is staying with relatives.

But individuals have helped lessen the damage to their homes and communities.

Santa Rosa homeowner Vincent Martin took his 1970s bulldozer and carved out a 12-foot fire break around his ranch.  As the fires raged, he continued, creating a line of defense stretching 2 miles, saving approximately 40 homes as reported by ABC7.

Martin urged his neighbors in his area, many he had never met, to leave while he stayed behind with two others to fight.

"I use to fight fires back when I was 17-years-old, believe or not,” Martin told ABC7. "He's like my dad, the guy next door here Tom Gram, and he put me on a tractor when I was 14 and by the time I was 17 I was working for Cal Fire.”

Outside the fire zone, carbon monoxide exposure concerns resulted in 16 firefighters requiring examination, according to CBS News. One was taken to the hospital, but the rest returned to the front.

Containment efforts should receive help with forecasts of cooler temperatures and rain, as reported by CBS News. 

In total this year’s record fires have burned approximately 4 million acres, with one fire complex burning more than 1 million acres by itself, the first fire recorded by the state to do so, as reported by CBS News.

With the idea that climate change is responsible for the increasing devastation of California wildfires, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently issued an executive order to reduce fossil fuel reliance in the next 15 years.

"This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change," Newsom said on CBS News. "For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Californians shouldn't have to worry if our cars are giving our kids asthma. Our cars shouldn't make wildfires worse – and create more days filled with smoky air."

Not everyone agrees that such measures will be effective. Before fire suppression started in the 20th century, between 4.4 and 11.9 million acres of California burned in a typical year, environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg said in a New York Post article. Lomborg said while addressing climate change is important, it is not the major cause of California’s fires. 

The result of modern fire suppression is an overabundance of unburnt fuel, which, according to Lomborg, will keep feeding larger and more destructive fires.