![]() ![]() Due to the poor air quality, San Francisco State University canceled classes, and outdoor activities were canceled in a number of cities, including Danville, Palo Alto, and Walnut Creek. īy October 12, smoke from the wildfires had spread nearly 100 miles, with "unhealthy" air quality indices registered in the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Rafael. Twenty-three were admitted to emergency rooms. In Solano County, over 250 people were sickened by smoke inhalation, and sought care at hospitals. By October 13, air quality in the city reached the "hazardous" level, the most dangerous on the Environmental Protection Agency scale. The wildfires caused severe air quality problems around the Bay Area.īy October 12, the air quality in the city of Napa was ranked the poorest in the nation, due to high levels of particulates and ozone. Many of the losses were in urban areas not historically prone to wildfire exposure. ![]() ![]() Additional losses were to automobiles, commercial property including business interruption insurance, and to crops. The largest portion of these losses was to residential property. history, with an estimated eight billion U.S. Reinsurance broker Aon Benfield stated that these are the costliest wildfires in U.S. By October 14, PG&E had restored electricity to 92% and gas service to 16,800 of the customers affected. It also said that more than 350,000 customers had lost electric service and 42,000 customers gas service since the wildfires began on October 8. Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reported mobilizing 4,300 workers to restore power. More than 10,000 firefighters battled the blaze, using more than 1,000 fire engines and other equipment, with crews arriving from as far away as Canada and Australia. Surveying the region, representative Mike Thompson of California's 5th congressional district said, "I fully expect this will be the worst fire disaster in California history." That evening, Governor Brown issued an emergency declaration for Solano County. President Donald Trump approved the disaster declaration on October 10. On October 9, California governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for the counties of Napa, Sonoma, Yuba, Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Nevada, and Orange, and sent a letter to the White House requesting a major disaster declaration. Most of the victims were elderly, though the ages of the victims ranged from 14 to 100 years old. Many of those killed in the fires are believed to have died late on October 8 or early on October 9, 2017, when most of the fires broke out overnight. In total, the Northern California fires killed 44 people and hospitalized at least 192 others, making this one of the deadliest wildfire events in the United States during the past century. By October 14, the fires had burned more than 210,000 acres (85,000 ha) while forcing 90,000 people to evacuate from their homes. Owing to the extreme conditions, shortly after the fires ignited on October 8 and 9, they rapidly grew to become extensive, full-scale incidents spanning from 1,000 acres (400 hectares) to well over 20,000 acres (8,100 ha), each within a single day. In 2018, the Camp Fire surpassed the October 2017 fires to become the single-costliest fire on record, causing an estimated $16.5 billion (2018 USD) in property damage. ![]() In addition, the Northern California fires were predicted to cost the US economy at least $85 billion. The October 2017 fires were the costliest group of wildfires on record at the time, causing around $14.5 billion (2017 USD) in damages, including $11 billion in insured losses and $1.5 billion in fire suppression costs, surpassing the 1991 Oakland firestorm, which until then had been the single costliest fire on record. These wildfires were also the most destructive ones of the 2017 California wildfire season. These fires included the Tubbs Fire (which grew to become the most destructive wildfire in the history of California up until that time - fires in 2018 were more destructive), the Atlas Fire, Nuns Fire, and others. Seventeen separate wildfires were reported at that time. Pacific Gas and Electric reported that red flag conditions existed in 44 of the 49 counties in its service area. The wildfires broke out throughout Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino, Butte, and Solano Counties during severe fire weather conditions, effectively leading to a major red flag warning for much of the Northern California area. The 2017 Northern California wildfires from October 7 to October 14 ![]()
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