The August Complex fire was officially deemed a giga fire on October 5. Wildfires have been occurring all across the country recently, but this giga fire is the first one to be recorded in California history.

The August Complex fire was sparked by lightning strikes on August 16-17. Despite being categorized as a mega fire, which is a wildfire that has burned up to 100,000 acres, the August Complex fire didn’t stop there.

Becoming California’s first recorded giga fire means the August Complex fire destroyed up to one million acres of land. Out of all the 2020 wildfires, it came to a whopping four million acres burned in total, also setting a record for the most acres burned in a single year.

For context, four million acres is more than twice the number of acres burned from the state’s previous worst wildfire season in 2018. The area equals a size larger than Connecticut.

“Climate change is a big factor in wildfires, as it has increased the severity of the weather and caused more droughts. Decreasing and/or adapting to these effects is, I believe, the only way to prevent more of these natural disasters in the future,” said Bavanna Pydipati (’24).

The warm and dry climate, intense heat waves, powerful winds and an overall hotter and drier season are all responsible for this year’s fires. Climate change helped create this situation through factors such as a drier climate than usual, which caused forests to be extra flammable, and high wind pressures that made it harder to put out fires.

“I saw one of the thunderstorms and it was terrifying to witness the damages the wildfires in general have caused. It was scary how close it kinda got to Pleasanton,” said Andrea Yang (’23).

The California wildfires so far have been at blame for at least 31 deaths, with many more at risk from deadly air pollution by the clouds of smoke. Horrible air quality is also said to be a result of  climate change and bad land use practices. 

Though the official Cal Fire website reports that the August Complex is now 93% contained, there are still other wildfires ongoing. Around 8,000 fires, big and small, continue to burn up acres in California.