President Trump approved a disaster declaration for California to funnel federal aid to affected regions devastated by wildfires in the state. According to a White House statement, those areas include Lake, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, and Yolo counties.
Hundreds of active fires in those areas have already burned around 1 million acres and California is also battling two of the largest fires in the state’s history: the 314,000-acre LNU Lightning Complex Fire in the northern Bay Area and Central Valley, and the 291,000-acre SCU Lightning Complex Fire largely east of San Jose.
Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked the President for approving the disaster relief in a statement: “Thank you to the President for your partnership and granting this urgent Major Disaster Declaration,” Newsom. California is battling two of the largest fires in our history and has seen nearly 600 new fires in the last week caused by dry lightning strikes. These are unprecedented times and conditions, but California is strong – we will get through this.” Newsom has said the current wave of fires are due to extraordinary weather in the state, noting that California has recorded more than 11,000 lightning strikes over the past 72 hours.
