The wildfires that have raged through California in 2020 have scorched more than 4 million acres of land.
The Golden State surpassed the historic milestone on Monday, which is more than double the previous record, 1.67 million acres in 2018, for the most acreage burned in a calendar year.
“The 4 million mark is unfathomable. It boggles the mind, and it takes your breath away,” Scott McLean, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said, according to the Associated Press. “And that number will grow.”
Since the beginning of the calendar year, there have been more than 8,200 wildfires that have killed 31 people statewide and nearly 8,500 structures have been destroyed, according to a statement from the department. There are 23 major wildfires that 16,500 firefighters across the state are still fighting.
The department also noted “a cooling trend is expected to begin slowly,” but added that “locally gusty winds” are expected in the coming days in some areas.
“In certain areas, we were able to get quite a bit of aircraft in. So we really pounded a couple different areas hard with aircraft,” McLean added. “If the weather does what is predicted, we’re on that glide path I hope. But that doesn’t diminish the amount of work that still needs to be done.”
The ongoing wildfires have left the air on the West Coast filled with smoke and a historic layer of smog.
