October 2007 California Wildfires

2007 California wildfires
NASA satellite photo (provided by NSPO, Taiwan National Space Organization) from October 24, 2007, showing the active fire zones and smoke plumes.
Statistics
Total fires	9,093
Total area	1,087,110 acres (4,399.4 km2)
Season
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The 2007 California Wildfire Season saw over 9,000 separate wildfires that charred 1,087,110 acres (4,399.4 km²) of land. 30 of those wildfires were part of the Fall 2007 California firestorm, which burned approximately 970,977 acres (about 3,900 km², or 1,500 mi²) of land from Santa Barbara County to the U.S.–Mexico border, surpassing the October 2003 California wildfires in scope, which were estimated to have burned . At the peak of the wildfire activity in October 2007, the raging wildfires were visible from space.

The wildfires killed a total of 14 people, with nine of them dying directly from the fires; 160 others were injured, including at least 124 firefighters.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in seven California counties where fires were burning. President George W. Bush concurred, and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts. Over 6,000 firefighters worked to fight the blazes; they were aided by units of the United States Armed Forces,United States National Guard, almost 3,000 prisoners convicted of non-violent crimes, and 60 firefighters from the Mexican cities of Tijuana and Tecate. The fires forced approximately 1,000,000 people to evacuate from their homes, becoming the largest evacuation in California's history.

Major contributing factors to the extreme fire conditions were drought in Southern California, hot weather, and the strong Santa Ana winds with gusts reaching 85 mph (140 km/h). California's "fire season," which traditionally runs from June to October, has become a year-round threat due to a mixture of perennial drought and the increasing number of homes built in canyons and on hillsides surrounded by brush and forest.

The fires had numerous sources. Several were triggered by power lines damaged by the high winds. One fire started when a semi-truck overturned. Another was suspected as having been deliberately caused; the suspect was shot and killed in flight by state authorities. A 10-year-old boy admitted that he accidentally started the Buckweed Fire by playing with matches. Causes of the remaining fires remain under investigation. The last fires, the Santiago and Poomacha Fires, were fully contained on November 9, 2007, about 19 days after the series of wildfires had begun to ignite.