20,000-Acre Fire in California Causes Thousand of Evacuations

With climate change causing unnatural heat waves, fires seem to be showing up all over the U.S. even causing the deaths of two firefighting pilots last Thursday in Nevada. Now, it seems California has gone up in flames.

RELATED: TRAIN DERAILMENT CAUSES BRIDGE TO PARTIALLY COLLAPSE AND SETS FIRE NEAR PHOENIX 

The fire reported to be in Cherry Valley has already devastated more than 20,516 acres of land and is currently only 5% contained. 

"Much of the northern and eastern edge of the fire is in very steep, rugged hillsides which [are] not accessible to firefighting vehicles.  Firefighters continue to work to slow the spread of the fire using all resources available including helicopters, fixed-wing air tankers, ground equipment, and hand-crews," wrote Forest Service authorities.

Raging on since Friday

The fire, referred to as the Apple Fire, is located in Riverside County, about 75 miles east of Los Angeles. It started on Friday and has not stopped since then.

CNN has reported that about 7,800 people have been evacuated due to the raging flames. The news agency also reported that there are currently 20 hand-crews, 6 helicopters, 178 engines, and 19 water tenders working on the fire. There are also more than 1,200 professional personnel involved in the battle.

No injuries reported

So far, however, no injuries have been reported. The fire department did tweet that a single-family home and two outbuildings were destroyed near Avenida Miravilla. Luckily, it seems the locations were evacuated.

Social media has flooded with images of the fire and the pictures will give you chills. Firefighting personnel also have to be careful not to contract COVID-19 while working.

#AppleFire morning update: 20,516 acres at 0% containment.

Our new public information line is:
(909) 383-5688

Please continue to follow @RivCoReady and @sbcountysheriff for evacuation info. pic.twitter.com/qCGkMGNy8a

— San Bernardino National Forest (@SanBernardinoNF) August 2, 2020

The pandemic means that they have to add many extra precautions to their work. This includes many changes concerning housing to sanitizing everything during the evenings after long workdays. Talk about complicating an already bad situation!