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<div type="image" title="kincade fire" height="1286" width="2291" msid="77685348" hostid="261"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Lightning and a scorching heat wave are causing hundreds of fires in <keyword id="2379" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="California">California</keyword>, forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate.</li><li>Devastating fires are nothing new in California, although their severity has increased in recent years.</li><li><keyword id="9071581" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="business-insider-weekly">Business Insider Weekly</keyword> visited Sonoma County residents whose homes and businesses fell victim to an especially brutal wildfire season earlier this year, and their stories are worth revisiting almost a year later.</li></ul><p>A scorching heat wave in California is causing hundreds of deadly fires that are causing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate.</p><p>The lightning-fueled blazes have already killed five people and injured 33 more, <a href="https://www.insider.com/10000-lightning-strikes-spark-major-fires-in-california-2020-8">authorities said on Friday</a>.</p><p>While devastating blazes are nothing new in California, climate change has increased their severity in recent years. Business Insider Weekly visited residents in Sonoma County whose homes and businesses fell victim to an especially brutal wildfire season in December and January, and one year later, their stories are worth revisiting.</p><div type="image" title="Screen Shot 2020 02 11 at 11.00.28 AM" height="1074" width="1915" msid="77685350" hostid="261"></div><p>Chris Arai is the owner of the last home standing on a ridge that was swallowed up by the <keyword id="8270043" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kincade-fire">Kincade Fire</keyword>, the 2019 season's most destructive blaze.</p><p>Its survival is possibly thanks to the handmade <keyword id="28762" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="fire">fire</keyword> defenses Arai has installed over the past several years.</p><p>Arai, an electrical engineer, had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-fire-fireproof-home-sonoma-county-kincade-2020-2">dedicated himself to building a home that could withstand wildfires</a>. His painstaking fire-prevention techniques include a concrete basement he poured by hand, a fire-repellent gel he coats his windows with, and a sprinkler system that dampens surrounding vegetation to prevent fires from consuming them.</p><p>Fifteen years later, as the Kincade Fire loomed, the local sheriff and multiple fire crews visited his property, and all advised him to evacuate immediately. He said he estimated he had a "95-plus"-percent chance of survival, but evacuated anyway.</p><p>And amazingly, his defenses worked, and his house stood standing.</p><p>"I would definitely ride it out now. Absolutely. Because now I know that the house didn't burn."</p><p>But that doesn't mean Arai is out of the woods. He is one of over 350,000 California homeowners who have been dropped by insurance companies in the past two years, in what some experts have called a crisis.</p><p>A similar fate awaited Michelle Hall, whose home 10 miles down the road was completely burned to the ground.</p><p>"So the companies, a lot of them wouldn't even, like you said, touch our house," Hall said. "They said absolutely not. We're not going to insure you. It's too high risk."</p><p>"I don't want to look at anything that's going to remind me of this ever again. I just want it to be over with and be able to move on."</p><div type="image" title="kincade fire" height="682" width="1024" msid="77685352" hostid="261"></div><p>A local charity is helping Hall's family pay for accommodation while they figure out what's next. Although Hall's family has lived in the house for generations, the fire may finally cause them to say goodbye — Hall is staying in Texas, and plans to move to Idaho while she waits on money from her fire settlement.</p><p>"The fires, you know, they're helping push me, and the high costs of living, you know?" she said. "That's probably the No. 1 reason, because if we wanted to move into town, we couldn't do it."</p><p>Another local charity, Corazon Healdsburg, set up a "free store" to provide necessities like diapers, socks, and paper towels to people who lost everything.</p><p>Moody's estimates the fire cost the average resident $765, and the average business $16,000.</p><p>Overall, Sonoma County took about a $725 million hit. The county is <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2020-01-15/sonoma-county-prepares-to-sue-pg-e-for-damages-from-fire">preparing to sue PG&amp;E,</a> California's electric utility, for damages. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but PG&amp;E has told state regulators that it had a problem at a transmission tower near the fire's ignition point.</p><p>For one local staple called the Jimtown Store, the losses have been too great to bear. The fires and ensuing blackouts forced it to close in late December. Three years of lost income because of the disasters had become too much to handle for the store that had been open for three decades.</p><p>"It's more than a dusty roadside cafe — it really is the heart and soul of this community," co-owner Carrie Brown said.</p><p>But even for those who escaped the flames, the future is still uncertain.</p><div type="image" title="kincade fire" height="662" width="1024" msid="77685354" hostid="261"></div>Across the state, an insurance crisis is unfolding. Multiple reports suggest that the recent wildfires have wiped out decades of profits for the industry.<p>In December, as insurers continued to drop policies, the state of California stepped in. It temporarily blocked insurance companies from cutting off close to 1 million more customers in 2020.</p><p>Meanwhile, Silicon Valley has offered a technological solution — the startup <a href="https://www.zesty.ai/">Zesty.ai</a> uses artificial intelligence to help insurance companies more accurately assess risk.</p><p>Zesty's platform rated the iconic Soda Rock Winery as high-risk for fire, even though most other agencies hadn't expected it to burn. Zesty was proven right when the 150-year-old local landmark was leveled in the fire.</p><p>David Shew, a former firefighter who consults with Zesty, said the company's model factors in "adjacent structures, what those structures are built out of, how close they are, the vegetation, the age of the structure." He said since the Kincade Fire, residents and businesses have been more sensitive to fire prevention.</p><p>Zesty could become an indispensable tool for those who wish to remain in a landscape that will continue to be reshaped by fire.</p><p>"The public has to accept the fact that if you choose to live in a fire prone environment, it is a constant piece of work that you have to maintain your structure," Shew said.</p>

As deadly fires force tens of thousands to evacuate in California, we look back on those who've lost their homes and businesses

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="7499" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Celebrity-Chef">Celebrity chef</keyword> <keyword id="912869" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Guy-Fieri">Guy Fieri</keyword> visited <keyword id="2379" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="California">California</keyword>'s Glass Fire base camp to provide free meals to first responders.</li><li>The fire, which sparked early in the morning on September 27, has since spanned 66,840 acres and is 50% contained, according to <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/9/27/glass-fire/">an incident update</a> from CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit Headquarters.</li><li>On Saturday, CAL FIRE shared a photo of Fieri and the meals his team provided to those working to put out the fire. </li></ul><p><keyword id="6355064" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Celebrity">Celebrity</keyword> chef and television personality <a href="https://www.insider.com/category/guy-fieri">Guy Fieri</a> visited the base camp of <a href="https://www.insider.com/glass-fire-napa-valley-blaze-destroys-winery-forces-evacuations-2020-9">California's Glass Fire Incident</a> and brought some <keyword id="6181" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Food">food</keyword> along with him. </p><p>The "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" host has been hunkered down in his Napa Valley ranch during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Saturday, he and his team visited the first responders who are working to contain the fire that's been <a href="https://www.insider.com/michelin-restaurant-meadowood-burns-down-california-wildfire-2020-9">tearing through the California wine country</a> and surrounding areas for more than a week. </p><p>The CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit Headquarters <a href="https://twitter.com/CALFIRELNU/status/1312461788521222144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1312461788521222144%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsf.eater.com%2F2020%2F10%2F5%2F21502979%2Fguy-fieri-glass-incident-fire-calfire-flavortowntown">tweeted a photo</a> of Fieri's contribution, writing "A MILLION THANKS to <a href="https://twitter.com/GuyFieri">@GuyFieri</a> and his talented team for bringing his delicious delights to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GlassFire?src=hashtag_click">#GlassFire</a> base camp! He made a lot of people very happy &amp; full today!"</p><p>The mayor of Flavortown (one of Fieri's many nicknames) provided a simple meal of green salad and pasta to the nearly 2,800 firefighters, many of whom are volunteers also working as winery employees, according to <a href="https://sf.eater.com/2020/10/5/21502979/guy-fieri-glass-incident-fire-calfire-flavortown">Eater</a> and the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/wine/article/In-fire-prone-Napa-winery-employees-double-as-15617788.php">San Francisco Chronicle</a>.  </p><div type="image" title="Guy Fieri" height="1687" width="2250" msid="78524637" hostid="261"></div><p>This isn't the first time Fieri has been seen helping out during the pandemic.</p><p>In May, <a href="https://www.insider.com/guy-fieri-restaurant-employee-relief-fund-millions-of-dollars-raised-2020-5">he helped raise more than $22 million for unemployed restaurant workers</a> across the US through his work with the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund. </p><p>Fieri also has a history of aiding victims of California wildfires, like the <a href="https://sf.eater.com/2019/10/29/20938849/guy-fieri-celebrity-chefs-kincade-fire-evacuees">2019 Sonoma County Kincade Fire</a>. </p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-show-devastation-glass-incident-wild-fire-wine-country-2020-9">Photos show an astonishing scale of devastation in Northern California's wine country, where the Glass Fire has torched entire warehouses, tasting rooms, and vineyards</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/guy-fieri-restaurant-employee-relief-fund-millions-of-dollars-raised-2020-5">Guy Fieri has helped raise more than $22 million for unemployed restaurant workers across the US</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/outdoor-dining-etiquette-tips-from-restaurant-workers-2020-8">Restaurant workers share 7 mistakes you're making when dining outdoors</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/the-garret-review-nyc-speakeasy-west-village-five-guys-burger-cocktails">A modern-day speakeasy above NYC's West Village Five Guys lets you bring your own burger and hang out in its living room-style lounge</a></li></ul>

Guy Fieri visited the California Glass Fire base camp to help feed first responders battling the wildfire

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The second-largest <keyword id="28762" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="fire">fire</keyword> in <keyword id="2379" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="California">California</keyword> history has already burned over 1.6 million acres this year.</li><li>This is the fourth year in a row of devastating fires to rip through <keyword id="4894" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="wine">wine</keyword> country. In late 2019, the Kincade Fire destroyed over 100 buildings like the iconic Soda Rock Winery.</li><li>Even if the flames don't reach winemakers' property, "smoke taint" can ruin their crop with an ashy taste that is hard to remove.</li></ul><p>After four years of worsening fire conditions, California winemakers have been forced to make a difficult decision: salvage what they can before smoke ruins their <keyword id="31628" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="grapes">grapes</keyword> or lose the crops and hope insurance will cover the losses.</p><p>Since August 15, over <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/">1.6 million acres</a> in California have burned — an area about the size of Delaware. <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/08/climate-change-is-worsening-californias-hellish-wildfires/">Scientists predict</a> this year will likely mark the state's worst-ever wildfire season.</p><p>In a normal year, the end of summer would mark the beginning of harvest in wine country. Nearly 15 million tourists visit Sonoma and Napa counties annually — pumping about $4 billion into wineries, hotels, and restaurants, according to state tourism data. </p><p>"Right now is the most critical time for the industry and our business and our county," Ross Reedy, the director of winemaking for Truett-Hurst Inc., said.</p><p>Reedy has worked in the wine industry for 12 years. He's seen how fires have changed the landscape over the years. He said that 10 years ago, he'd be able to determine when to pick grapes based on their ripeness, now he's at the mercy of fires and wind patterns.</p><p>Even when fires aren't close, winemakers worry about what they call "smoke taint."</p><p>"If you have smoke that sits in a vineyard over a period of time, it latches onto the skins and the sugar," Reedy said. "It actually creates very heavy barbecue, ashtray kind of characteristics in the wine."</p><p>"You can taste it as an ordinary consumer," Mia Van de Water, a master sommelier at Cote Korean Steakhouse in New York, said.</p><div type="image" title="wine fire" height="1124" width="2000" msid="77856226" hostid="261"></div><p>She said the ashy taste sometimes becomes apparent only after the grapes have been processed and fermented. Batches of affected wine are typically sold in bulk and blended in with other wine to dilute the flavor.</p><p>"It'll wind up in something like Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi," she said, referring to a product that costs under $10 per bottle.</p><p>Some vineyards are just one lost crop away from their business coming to an end.</p><p>"First of all, it hurts the grower," Reedy said. "So basically he doesn't make any money this year. He limps along. If he was in dire straits, it could potentially kill his business." </p><p>Hotter, drier conditions are becoming part of a "new normal" in California. Though <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-kincade-fire-sonoma-county-2020-8">last year's Kincade Fire started because of faulty electrical equipment</a>, this year's combination of a searing heat wave and rare summer lightning storms has kicked off what scientists predict could be a catastrophic fire season. </p><p>Winemakers are trying their best to adapt, but there are many complications.</p><p>The power at <a href="https://www.emmittscorsone.com/">Emmitt-Scorsone Wines</a> was out for over a week.   </p><p>Some vineyards have crop insurance, but it rarely covers all losses. That puts growers like Reedy in a bind: harvest what they can and risk that the wine made from them will have an unpleasant smoke flavor, or let them rot on the vine and file an insurance claim.</p><p>And it means asking field workers to brave rough conditions in the middle of a pandemic. <a href="https://www.cirsinc.org/">A July study</a> showed that California agricultural workers were three times more likely to contract the virus compared with workers in other sectors.</p><p><a href="https://www.corazonhealdsburg.org/">Corazón Healdsburg</a>, a local nonprofit, has been distributing food since the pandemic began. On August 21, it offered free COVID-19 testing for the community in the parking lot adjacent to its headquarters. Many of those who show up for testing are agricultural workers and their families.</p><p>"If somebody is infected with COVID, that could really have a huge impact on the whole operation. And so that's why this testing is so important right now," Ariel Kelley, the CEO of the organization, said. </p><div type="image" title="wine fire" height="1122" width="2000" msid="77856228" hostid="261"></div><p>A majority of agriculture workers in Sonoma County are Spanish speakers. That language barrier can make it difficult to pass on information about COVID-19 and fire evacuations. Some of those who need help most are afraid to ask because of their immigration status, Kelley said.</p><p>"There will be folks by virtue of all of the alphabet soup of government agencies that show up: the California Office of Emergency Services and all of the different government departments that come. People get nervous and rightfully so," Kelley said.</p><p>Despite these challenges, winemakers are taking steps to protect their workers and their grapes. Organizations like <a href="https://sonomawinegrape.org/">Sonoma County Winegrowers</a> provide fire-safety training. Others have produced instructional videos about COVID-19 for Spanish-speaking workers.</p><p>In St. Helena, California, <a href="https://www.etslabs.com/home">ETS Laboratories</a> developed a test to detect smoke taint in grapes. This year they've already received 1,000 samples for testing, according to Karissa Kruse, the president of Sonoma County Winegrowers. Kruse also oversees <a href="https://www.scggf.org/">a foundation</a> that provides emergency relief to agricultural workers affected by fires.</p><p>But many growers, like Palmer Emmitt of Emmitt-Scorsone Wines, remain optimistic about the industry's future.</p><p>"Hopefully this is not going to be an annual occurrence. But Sonoma County and the wine industry are resilient, and I think we'll survive and keep chugging," Emmitt said.</p><p>In the wee hours of August 23, Reedy's crew finished their emergency pick. It seems that the day's haul has a future in bottles as rosé.</p><p>"We would have loved to have turned this into a still red wine, but you gotta do what you gotta do," Reedy said.</p>

California winemakers are racing to salvage their grape harvests before wildfires destroy them

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Glass Complex Fire in <keyword id="2379" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="California">California</keyword> wine country has forced 70,000 evacuations and destroyed about 250 structures.</li><li>Strong winds have blown huge chunks of <keyword id="15877" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="ash">ash</keyword> from the fire into backyards and streets in Santa Rosa — one resident found a piece of ash roughly the size of her face.</li></ul><p>Morgan Balaei stores her family's most precious photos in a box by the front door of her home in Santa Rosa, California — pictures from her childhood and her parents' wedding.</p><p>"We just keep it near the door, ready to go," Balaei, who's now 40, told Insider. The box has been there since 2017, when the Tubbs Fire tore through her community in Sonoma County, destroying thousands of homes and killing 22 people.</p><p>The Tubbs Fire was the most destructive in California history at the time, though it was eclipsed a year later by the Camp Fire. Then this year, Santa Rosans lived through a blaze that burned a far bigger area than either of those: the 363,000-acre LNU Lightning Complex Fire, which killed five people in late August.</p><p>Fire season isn't over, though, and now they're dealing with the Glass Complex Fire, which ignited Sunday. It has spread over 56,000 acres and is lapping at the eastern edges of Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco.</p><p>Late Sunday night, Balaei said, "the ash really kicked up."</p><p>While driving, she added, "I could actually hear it landing on my car."</p><p>When she surveyed the area the following morning, huge pieces of ash, black and stringy, covered her backyard. One of the chunks was "probably the size of my face," she <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/Probably-the-size-of-my-face-Santa-Rosa-15604680.php">told the San Francisco Chronicle</a>.</p><div type="image" title="ash2" height="1504" width="1532" msid="78437008" hostid="261"></div><p>Balaei estimated it took her and her family more than two hours to clean up.</p><p>"Fire's always scary, but to me, the ash and the amount of it just around the neighborhood, burnt leaves, was just as terrifying," she said. "Any of those things could have sparked a fire in the middle of my neighborhood."</p><p>Other residents also found unusually large pieces of ash on their homes, cars, and neighborhoods. R. Tyler Croy, another Santa Rosan, posted a photo of <a href="https://twitter.com/agentdero/status/1311466873838395392">his ash-covered car to Twitter</a>.</p><div type="image" title="ash from car" height="629" width="838" msid="78437009" hostid="261"></div><p>"We did not see this kind of ash fall during the Tubbs or Kincade fires," he told Insider. "Seeing entire leaves land on the sidewalk is quite bizarre."</p><h2>A record-breaking year of fires</h2><p>The Glass Complex Fire's proximity to populated regions has forced some 70,000 residents to flee their homes. It has already destroyed about 250 structures.</p><p>Winds in the area died down earlier this week but were expected to pick up again Thursday, according to Santa Rosa's fire chief, Tony Gossner.</p><p>"For the city of Santa Rosa residents, this wind event is going to be serious enough for everyone to pay attention," he said, <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11840367/glass-fire-continues-ruthless-assault-on-wine-county-as-firefighters-brace-for-more-wind">according to KQED</a>. "So whether you live in a warning zone or an evacuation zone, you need to pay attention to the <keyword id="6359992" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="weather">weather</keyword> and everything around you. It's vital."</p><p>Climate change has contributed to increases in both the number and the severity of fires in California. The state's 10 largest wildfires ever have all occurred since 2000; <a href="https://fire.ca.gov/media/11416/top20_acres.pdf">five of those</a> happened this year.</p><p>Bigger and more frequent seasonal blazes are expected to erupt even more often as land gets hotter and drier. A <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2020/04/02/increasing-risk-extreme-wildfire-weather/">recent analysis</a> from Stanford University found that since the 1980s, the average temperature during California's <keyword id="41285" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Wildfire">wildfire</keyword> season has risen by more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Overall precipitation in the season, meanwhile, has dropped by 30%. Those conditions have more than doubled the state's number of extreme wildfire risk days in autumn.</p><p>October is historically the worst month for wildfires in California.</p><p>But despite the danger, Balaei doesn't have plans to leave her community in Santa Rosa.</p><p>"This is my little slice of heaven," she said. "So i'm going to stick it out."</p><p>Large chunks of ash are no longer falling, she added — now it's "more of those small little flakes you see out of the corner of your eye."</p><p>But as of Thursday morning, the Glass Complex Fire was only 5% contained.</p>

Face-size chunks of ash fell from the sky in California wine country, where the Glass Complex Fire has forced 70,000 to evacuate

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Fumiaki Takahashi</span></p><p class="caption">Researcher Fumiaki Takahashi and his team set a small cedar shed on fire in a forest in New Jersey to test fire-blanket technology.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/satellite-images-space-kincade-fire-california-wine-country-smoke-2019-10">Wildfires across California</a> have <a href="https://www.insider.com/california-fire-updates-sonoma-county-kincade-fire-2019-10">destroyed hundreds of homes</a> and other structures.</li><li>Researchers at Case Western Reserve University found a way to <a href="https://www.insider.com/california-fire-updates-sonoma-county-kincade-fire-2019-10">protect homes from a blaze</a> by wrapping them in a blanket.</li><li>They tested the approach by covering a small cabin with four different fabrics and setting it on fire.</li><li>Two of those fabrics were most successful at blocking heat and radiation, though they still only lasted in the flames for up to 10 minutes.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>When firefighters enter a burning building, they wear clothing designed to resist the flames. So why shouldn't homes get protective gear to fend off a blaze?</p><p>"Most everything we use in home construction can burn," Marko Bourne, a former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/youtube-theories-what-caused-california-wildfires-2018-11">told Business Insider</a> last year. "Our homes will always have flammable materials."</p><p>In California, the <a href="https://www.insider.com/category/kincade-fire">Kincade Fire</a> has <a href="https://www.insider.com/california-wildfires-kincade-photos-show-destruction-2019-10">destroyed 94 homes</a> in wine country, while the Getty Fire in Los Angeles had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/los-angeles-getty-fire-evacuations-updates-2019-10">claimed another 12 homes</a> as of Thursday. </p><p>Buildings best equipped to withstand a wildfire are usually made of steel, concrete, or brick. But any home can be vulnerable under the right circumstances. Construction materials like plastics and laminates, Bourne said, can become exceptionally hot. Homes with broken or open windows, flammable landscape materials, or gutters littered with debris are also quick to ignite. </p><p>Engineers have long toyed with ways to seal off homes to protect them from wildfires. Wrapping an entire home in a protective blanket, some scientists figure, could prevent embers from entering a building or catching its exterior. Now, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmech.2019.00060/full#F6">a new study has found evidence</a> that the solution could actually work. </p><h2>Researchers lit different materials on fire, and found two that worked best</h2><p>Fire blankets are commonly used to extinguish small flames, but the idea of using them to cover homes hasn't been tested much.</p><p>Fumiaki Takahashi, a mechanical engineer at Case Western Reserve University, decided to look into it after he came across a 1944 patent. </p><p>The patent showed how to apply a fire blanket to a home, but it "doesn't say much about the materials and there was no scientific research," Takahashi told Business Insider. So he worked with his research team to test four fabrics that are known to resist flames.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Fumiaki Takahashi</span></p><p class="caption">All four of these fire blankets - and the wood panels inside - emerged relatively undamaged by test flames.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>One of the materials, aramid, is already used in firefighters' uniforms. Another, fiberglass, insulates homes. Takahashi also tested amorphous silica, a material used to insulate semiconductors in electronics, and pre-oxidized carbon, which can withstand temperatures of up to 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit.</p><p>"We tested only thin materials - one or two millimeter thickness - so that the total weight should be light enough to install all over the house," Takahashi said. </p><p>The tests involved wrapping various structures in the different fabrics and burning them under a range of wildfire conditions.</p><p>For certain tests, the researchers laminated the materials with aluminum foil to keep radiation from passing through the fabric. They started by wrapping and igniting small boxes the size of a birdhouse indoors in Ohio. Next, they burned wooden panels in California. Finally, they set a small cedar shed on fire in a forest in New Jersey. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Fumiaki Takahashi</span></p><p class="caption">Four wooden walls covered with different fire blankets are seen on a slope in California.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Ultimately, Takahashi found that the fiberglass and silica blankets performed best. They blocked around 92% of the heat transfer to the fabric.</p><p>"Those materials are non-combustible - they don't ignite," Takahashi said.</p><p>He also found that the blankets were most effective with an aluminum layer on the outside, which reflected up to 96% of the thermal radiation.</p><h2>The blankets only last for about 10 minutes, but that window could be critical</h2><p>Takahashi noted that fire-blanket technology comes with some obvious limitations. </p><p>"The situation is very complicated because each structure is different, each fire is different," he said. </p><p>For example, a house could have lots of vents that allow flames to enter, or decks that make it difficult to wrap the entire property in a blanket. It also could be surrounded by thick vegetation or located on a steep slope - both of which would cause a wildfire to spread quickly.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Fumiaki Takahashi</span></p><p class="caption">A wall is covered in an aluminum blanket, which held up during a test fire.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In dense neighborhoods with lots of houses packed tightly together, the chance of a structure catching on fire is higher, since one burning house tends to have a domino effect. Dry, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/santa-ana-winds-why-they-spark-fires-2018-12">windy conditions</a> and low humidity further to encourage the spread of wildfires and make them harder to control. Under these conditions, even fiberglass or silica blankets would have a hard time quelling a flame. </p><p>Since the blankets that Takahashi tested were thin, they could only withstand wildfires for up to 10 minutes before they deteriorate. But that might be long enough to keep a home safe if there are no other properties around. </p><p>"If the structure is isolated and vegetation surrounding the house is controlled, then there is a chance that fire blankets can work," Takahashi said. </p><p>But before fire blankets become available for homeowners to purchase or apply, he added, they should be able to withstand flames for hours. That will require more experiments in the future. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/notre-dame-fire-cathedral-expert-historic-buildings-catch-fire-2019-4">A fire expert explains why historic buildings like Notre-Dame Cathedral burn so easily</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Researchers created an aluminum blanket that wraps around homes to prevent them from burning down in a fire

<p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-action-100-gets-energy-giants-to-commit-to-sustainbility-2019-5"></a></p><p class="source"><span>Associated Press</span></p><p class="caption">Firefighters work to contain a bushfire along Old Bar road November 9, 2019.</p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Descartes Labs uses artificial intelligence to detect wildfires, and they can correctly spot one in a record-breaking time of nine minutes. </strong></li><li>Devastating wildfires are occurring much more frequently than ever before. The earlier one can be detected, the better.</li><li>Descartes Labs launched their wildfire detector on July 1, 2019, and helped the LA Times break news of the Kincade Fire.</li><li>They leverage two satellites called GOES-16 and GOES-17 that hover above the western hemisphere and send thermal infrared images every five minutes.</li><li>They are currently conducting a trial run with the New Mexico state government and hope to expand their services to all over the world.</li><li>This article is part of our ongoing series on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/better-capitalism">Better Capitalism</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p>Nine minutes. That's how fast <a href="https://www.descarteslabs.com/">Descartes Labs</a> can spot a growing wildfire with artificial intelligence. It's the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/05/tech/ai-wildfires/index.html">record speed</a>, and the current one to beat.<br /><br />Normally, the process of detecting wildfires can take hours or longer. <a href="https://medium.com/descarteslabs-team/the-satellites-hunting-for-megafires-afa1305fdc2c">In the past, wildfires have been reported by civilians, commercial pilots, or fire agencies</a>, who use crumbling towers built more than a century ago to look for flares. More recently, fire managers have started conducting reconnaissance flights to search for potential fires. But, since these are incredibly costly, this option is only employed when the fire risk is high.</p><p class="source"><span>Clyde Wheeler</span></p><p class="caption">Clyde Wheeler.</p><p>Even when fires are spotted using one of these methods, it can take a long time to determine precisely where it is and how to get there. And with wildfires, there's no time to spare. The faster it spreads, the more dangerous it becomes. The effects can be catastrophic.</p>

A look at how Descartes Labs is leveraging AI to alert fire managers of wildfires and decrease the damage on homes and habitats across the US

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-wildfire-crisis-getting-worse-climate-change-2019-10">Pacific Gas &amp; Electric Co. (PG&amp;E)</a> power lines have caused over 1,500 California <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/wildfires">wildfires</a> in the last six years, including the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/camp-fire">deadliest blaze</a> in the state's history.&#xa0;</li><li>Many critics, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, accuse PG&amp;E of prioritizing profits over safety measures for decades.</li><li>The company has filed for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pge-biggest-climate-change-bankruptcy-as-utility-files-for-chapter-11-2019-1">bankruptcy</a> and started cutting power to millions of Californians to keep power lines from sparking in dry, windy conditions.</li><li>Many Californians think they should never have been faced with the choice between days-long blackouts and deadly fires.</li><li>Here's what experts say PG&amp;E should have done years ago, from better tree trimming to power-line upgrades.</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p>Over the last week, the Kincade Fire has torn through nearly 78,000 acres of California wine country, forcing about 180,000 people to evacuate. Meanwhile, millions have gone without electricity, often for days at a time.</p><p>Hospitals scrambled to find refrigerators for medications, people bundled their children to keep them warm during cool nights, and seniors were <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disabled-california-seniors-left-behind-power-outage-n1074706">left alone</a> in the dark.</p><p>The state's largest utility, Pacific Gas &amp; Electric Co. (PG&amp;E), is responsible for these blackouts, and possibly for the fire itself.</p><p>Around the time the Kincade Fire ignited, a jumper cable broke on a PG&amp;E transmission tower in the area, the company <a href="https://www.pgecurrents.com/2019/10/24/electric-incident-report-filed-with-cpuc-in-response-to-kincade-fire/">told state regulators</a> on October 24. By the time PG&amp;E personnel arrived, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) had taped the area off and identified the broken cable.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>A problem with PG&amp;E equipment <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/business/pge-fire.html">was also the cause of the Camp Fire</a>, a California state agency said, which killed at least 85 people last year and razed more than 18,800 structures. It was the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.</p><p>In fact, according to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-sparked-at-least-1-500-california-fires-now-the-utility-faces-collapse-11547410768">The Wall Street Journal</a>, the utility company's equipment led to more than 1,500 fires between June 2014 and December 2017.</p><p>So this fall, as low humidity and strong winds created fire-hazard conditions in northern California, PG&amp;E cut power to nearly 1.1 million customers in October to minimize risks that sparking wires could start more blazes.</p><p>PG&amp;E CEO Bill Johnson <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/18/771486828/california-can-expect-blackouts-for-a-decade-says-pg-e-ceo">said</a>&#xa0;Californians should expect these types of preemptive outages for another 10 years.</p><p>"We recognize the hardship of not having electric service," a PG&amp;E spokesperson told Business Insider in an email. "While we recognize that the scope of these events is unsustainable in the long term, it was the correct decision given the large-scale, historic weather events and ensuing equipment damage that unfolded across our service area."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>But many Californians say they should have never been forced into this choice: deadly fires or days-long outages. Instead, PG&amp;E's critics accuse the company of shirking safety precautions in order to funnel money towards investor dividends.</p><p>According to Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-17/hiltzik-hedge-funds-pge">PG&amp;E might now be</a>&#xa0;"the most detested, and detestable, corporation in California, if not in the observable solar system."</p><p>Here's how the company wound up in this position, and what it could have done instead.</p><h2>PG&amp;E prioritized 'the bottom line over everything'</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>After a PG&amp;E pipeline exploded in 2010, killing eight people, state regulators started investigating the company. They <a href="https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/CPUC_Public_Website/Content/Safety/Natural_Gas_Pipeline/News/AgendaStaffReportreOIIPGESanBrunoExplosion.pdf">found</a> that PG&amp;E had collected $224 million more than it was authorized to collect in oil and gas revenue in the decade before the explosion. Meanwhile, it spent millions less than it was supposed to on maintenance and generally fell short of industry safety standards.</p><p>"There was very much a focus on the bottom line over everything: 'What are the earnings we can report this quarter?'" Mike Florio, who was a California utilities commissioner from 2011 to 2016, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/18/business/pge-california-wildfires.html">the New York Times</a>. "And things really got squeezed on the maintenance side."</p><p>A 2017 <a href="http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M235/K399/235399881.PDF">report</a> to state regulators highlighted PG&amp;E's lack of a comprehensive safety strategy, unclear communication about safety between management and field personnel, and the company's tendency to take action only after a major disaster.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Anticipating the cost of billions of dollars in legal claims associated with the Camp Fire and other fires from 2017 and 2018, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pge-biggest-climate-change-bankruptcy-as-utility-files-for-chapter-11-2019-1">PG&amp;E filed for bankruptcy</a> in January.</p><p>"We should not have to be here - years and years of greed, years and years of mismanagement, particularly with the largest investor-owned utility in the state of California, PG&amp;E," California Gov. Gavin Newsom, one of the company's most vocal critics, said in a press conference about the Kincade Fire on October 26. "We will do everything in our power to restructure PG&amp;E so it is a completely different entity when they get out of bankruptcy by June 30th of next year."</p><p>Randy Harris, who owns a gift shop in Santa Rosa that lost customers during the blackouts, told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/29/pges-role-sonoma-fire-questioned-anger-around-power-outages-spreads/">the Washington Post</a> that he shares Gov. Newsom's opinion of his utility company.</p><p>"I think they've been supporting their shareholders and executives more than they've been looking out for the public," Harris said.</p><h2>PG&amp;E needs to trim trees&#xa0;</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Engineers and energy experts are quick to note a long list of safety practices PG&amp;E should have prioritized.</p><p>For one, the company should have been more actively trimming dry trees, many say. Vegetation can ignite when it rubs against high-voltage wires - the kind that sit at the top of the large power lines that run between cities - because those wires aren't usually covered in insulation. (Low-voltage lines that connect to individual homes are generally insulated.)</p><p>"The utilities have tried to do a good job, but they have had a great deal of difficulty in doing safe trimming of their trees," Otto Lynch, CEO of Power Line Systems, an electric-utility software developer, told Business Insider. (Lynch did not comment on PG&amp;E's practices specifically.)</p><p>"If we could just keep the trees away from the wires, we wouldn't have to worry about it," he added.</p><p>In February, PG&amp;E released a $1.6 billion <a href="https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20190206_pge_submits_2019_wildfire_safety_plan_with_additional_safety_precautions_and_significantly_expanded_public_safety_power_shutoff_program">wildfire-safety plan</a> in which it set goals to clear branches that hang over power lines, identify trees that could fall onto the lines, and more than double the number of trees it trims in 2019.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>As of September 21, however, the company <a href="https://www.pgecurrents.com/2019/10/04/pge-community-wildfire-safety-program-progress-fact-sheet/">had trimmed</a> less than a third of those trees - just 760 miles of the 2,455 miles of power lines it had pledged to clear. PG&amp;E cited a lack of personnel as the reason for the slow progress, according to the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-is-less-than-one-third-done-with-its-2019-14483596.php">San Francisco Chronicle</a>.</p><p>After its first round of blackouts in early October, PG&amp;E discovered <a href="https://www.pgecurrents.com/2019/10/14/15-things-you-need-to-know-about-pges-oct-9-12-public-safety-power-shutoff/">over 100 problems</a> with its power lines. Most of the affected equipment had been inspected in 2018 or 2019, according to the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/PG-E-to-judge-56-incidents-from-Oct-9-windstorm-14575396.php">San Francisco Chronicle</a>. If electricity had been flowing through those lines, the company told a judge, there were 56 issues - like fallen trees and wind-toppled poles - that could have lit California's bone-dry shrubbery on fire.</p><p>Of those incidents, 44 were caused by vegetation.&#xa0;</p><p>PG&amp;E identified another <a href="https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20191031_9_pm_psps_update_pge_restores_essentially_all_customers_following_system-wide_historic_and_widespread_wind_events_156_incidents_of_damageshazards_identified_so_far_crews_continuing_to_restore_gas_service_to_customers_impacted_by_kincade_fire">156</a> incidents of damage during more power shutoffs at the end of October.</p><h2>Better, newer equipment could make the grid more resilient</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The transmission tower that caused the Camp Fire was about 25 years too old by PG&amp;E's own standards, but the utility had not made any moves to replace it in the years leading up to the fire, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/18/business/pge-california-wildfires.html">New York Times investigation</a> found.</p><p>The company's safety plan also set goals about replacing aging hardware and upgrading existing infrastructure. Such upgrades include covering high-voltage wires with insulation to prevent sparks of molten metal from erupting when wires touch branches or slap together in high winds.</p><p>Another simple hardware upgrade mentioned involves replacing wooden poles with sturdier, less flammable ones made from materials like steel or concrete.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>As of August 31, PG&amp;E <a href="https://www.pgecurrents.com/2019/10/04/pge-community-wildfire-safety-program-progress-fact-sheet/">said</a> it had installed fire-resistant poles and covered power lines on 75 miles of its grid in fire-prone areas. It plans to complete 150 miles of these installations by the end of 2019, and 7,100 miles total over the next 10 years.</p><p>The company also plans to replace old equipment with Cal Fire-certified alternatives and install transformers that contain fire-resistant fluid. (Transformers help move electrical currents from high-voltage to low-voltage wires, and the electrical activity inside them is a frequent wildfire culprit. One fire this week in the Bay Area may have been <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/PG-E-to-state-2-Lafayette-fires-linked-to-14568505.php">sparked by a PG&amp;E transformer</a>.)</p><p>PG&amp;E's plan also mentions long-term aspirations to move wires underground in particularly fire-prone areas. For a bankrupt company, though, that's tough: For the price of burying one mile of power lines ($3 million), PG&amp;E could build almost four new miles of overhead lines, according to <a href="http://www.pgecurrents.com/2017/10/31/facts-about-undergrounding-electric-lines/">the company's own estimates</a>.</p><h2>Even good equipment needs to be monitored</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Experts often point to a different California utility as an example of the right approach: San Diego Gas &amp; Electric (SDGE), which implemented many of the changes PG&amp;E has been slow to accomplish after it was sued for causing a destructive 2007 wildfire.</p><p>SDGE also broke up its grid into smaller segments so that it can shut power off only in isolated areas with the highest fire risk.</p><p>Of course, even a fully upgraded, vegetation-cleared power line can occasionally collide with a dry branch, especially amid powerful winds. The Getty Fire in Los Angeles this week was sparked when strong wind caused a broken branch to land across two high-voltage wires.</p><p>&#xa0;</p><p>That's why San Diego Gas &amp; Electric's efforts didn't stop with just clearing trees and fixing equipment.</p><p>The company has also made monitoring its system a priority. It collects data on every pole and transmission tower in its grid, monitors weather conditions for fire risk at 177 stations, and records video with 100 high-definition cameras across its network, according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/18/business/pge-california-wildfires.html">New York Times</a>.</p><p>Overall, the company <a href="https://www.sdge.com/fire-risk-mitigation-initiative-firm">says</a> it has spent $1.5 billion on upgrading, maintaining, and monitoring its power lines since 2007.</p><p>"You're proactive about monitoring the health of an asset. You don't run it to failure," Shawn Chandler, director of IT at the Pacific Northwest utility PacifiCorp, told Business Insider. "The low-hanging fruit in this system, to use a catch phrase, is always with analytics, a smart grid, line sensors, good vegetation management programs, frequent line inspections."</p><p>PG&amp;E's grid extends over a much larger area than SDGE's. But the company plans to follow San Diego's example and install 600 high-definition cameras by 2022, followed by 1,300 weather stations in the next five years.</p><p>As of mid-September, PG&amp;E had installed 94 of those cameras and a total of 600 weather stations.</p><h2>As climate change increases wildfire risk, Californians could be stuck between blackouts and deadly fires more often</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Although PG&amp;E has begun implementing new safety measures, the company is also facing the effects of a warming climate, which causes vegetation to get drier and lengthens the wildfire season.&#xa0;</p><p>A <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/113/42/11770">2016 study</a> found that 75% more forest dried out in the western US from 2000 to 2015. Over that time period, western states gained nine extra days of high fire potential per year, on average.</p><p>Overall, the research showed, climate change has nearly doubled the amount of forest that burned between 1984 and 2015, adding over 10 billion additional acres of burned area. In California in particular, the annual area burned in summer wildfires <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2019EF001210">increased five-fold</a> from 1972 to 2018.</p><p>Nine of the 10 biggest fires in California history have occurred since the year 2003.</p><p>So when power lines do spark, these climate conditions mean drier vegetation is more likely to ignite. Then the resulting fires are more likely to grow than they were 20 years ago.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>As the world continues to warm, wildfires are expected to keep get bigger and more frequent.</p><p>Johnson, PG&amp;E's CEO, has indicated that blackouts will likely continue to be the company's go-to strategy when risk is high.</p><p>"We'll likely have to make this kind of decision again in the future," he said at a <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> conference on October 10.</p><p>In the three weeks since that statement, the company has cut power four times.</p><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-californians-can-control-the-spread-of-wildfires-2019-10">6 ways Californians can control the spread of wildfires</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Over 1,500 California fires in the last 6 years - including the deadliest ever - were caused by one company: PG&E. Here's what it could have done, but didn't.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Two Shepherds Vineyards/Facebook</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/california-fire-updates-sonoma-county-kincade-fire-2019-10">On October 23, the Kincade Fire ignited</a> in Sonoma County, California leading to the evacuation of 200,000 people - the largest in Sonoma County history - as strong winds have allowed the flames to spread quickly.</li><li>The fire has destroyed over 120 structures and has burned through 75,000 acres - that's roughly five times the size of Manhattan.</li><li>The Sonoma Wine Country is a hefty <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/napa-sonoma-wineries-that-burned-in-the-fires-2017-10#the-region-is-an-economic-powerhouseand-a-favorite-destination-for-wine-lovers-its-home-to-hundreds-of-elite-wineries-and-vineyards-trendy-restaurants-and-five-star-hotels-2">source of income</a> for the state as thousands of wine lovers flock to its wineries every year.</li><li>It's been two years to the month since the region's winery operators experienced a series of fires in 2017 <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-27/californias-wine-country-fires-blackouts-sonoma-napa-tourism">that left 22 of its 900 wineries destroyed in its path.</a></li><li>William Allen told Business Insider that his business, Two Shepherds Winery, survived the destructive wildfires in 2017 and said he's hoping and praying that his winery and his farm make it through this year's Kincade Fire.</li><li>Allen evacuated his town of Fulton on Saturday. He said another wind event on Tuesday isn't expected to be as bad as the previous ones, but "fire is insanely unpredictable," Allen said. "The winery is still only a few gusts away from being demolished."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p>Sonoma County, California, is no stranger to wildfires.</p><p>About <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-27/californias-wine-country-fires-blackouts-sonoma-napa-tourism">20 of the 900 wineries</a> in the wine country region were destroyed by a series of destructive blazes in October 2017 that also left 200,000 acres scorched and 40 people dead in one of the state's deadliest wildfires.</p><p>William Allen of Two Shepherds Winery was one of the lucky ones in 2017. His winery in Windsor and his farm further south of it were left standing once the flames were snuffed.</p><p>But when we spoke with Allen Monday evening, he said that his winery was in the crosshairs of 2019's Kincade Fire, which broke out in Geyserville about 65 miles north of San Francisco on October 23.</p><p>The Kincade Fire has scorched 73,000 acres over the course of a week and has forced 200,000 people to evacuate from towns including Healdsburg, Windsor, and Santa Rosa, the latter of which <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/napa-sonoma-wineries-that-burned-in-the-fires-2017-10">was especially ravaged in the 2017 fires.</a></p><p>According to <a href="https://abc7news.com/officials-say-kincade-fire-is-now-74000-acres-15-percent-contained/5652992/">KGO</a>, 123 structures have been destroyed so far by the Kincade Fire, including the Soda Rock Winery in Healdsburg that was a landmark of Sonoma's wine country and <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/Kincade-Fire-rips-through-Sonoma-wineries-Soda-14565877.php#">whose buildings date back 150 years.</a></p><p>Now, Allen said the fate of his winery, who he runs with his girlfriend and business partner Karen Daenen, now rests in the hands of the first responders as the fire rages on with only 15% of it contained currently.</p><p>"If they are successful, we'll be fine," Allen said. "If they're not, we'll lose our winery."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of William Allen</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>An 'unprecedented' evacuation</h2><p>In the weeks before the fire broke out, Allen said they had just finished the harvest for their 10-year-old winery.</p><p>On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 26, three days after the Kincade Fire ignited, Allen said their situation in Windsor didn't seem as dire as other parts of the county. They put a game plan together anyways to prepare themselves and others in the area in case the fire started to draw near to them.</p><p>Allen was on his way back from New York, but Daenen was on the ground helping others gather supplies for their farm animals.</p><p>Allen said their plans were to open the tasting room and invite people in for some wine and to power their devices, since rolling power outages were making that difficult to do. The utility company Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&amp;E) had <a href="https://www.insider.com/california-fire-updates-sonoma-county-kincade-fire-2019-10">shut off the power</a> for almost one million customers as a precaution during the fire season.</p><p>But then it was them that were in danger just like much of the rest of the county.</p><p>"By 5 o'clock, we were in a dramatically different situation fleeing ourselves," Allen said.</p><p>Allen said that's when the announcements came for the evacuation of both Windsor and Healdsburg, which was "pretty unprecedented."</p><p>"We've never had that many people from large population centers evacuated," Allen said.</p><p>And that's true on a grander scale throughout Sonoma - the Kincade Fire has resulted in the <a href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Kincade-Fire-Forces-Largest-Evacuation-in-Sonoma-County-History-563941921.html">largest evacuation in Sonoma County history.</a></p><p>"We left knowing that there was a possibility we had no place to go, no place to return to," Allen said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of William Allen</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Allen and Daenen live on a farm in a small rural community called Fulton between Santa Rosa and Windsor about 10 miles south of the Two Shepherds Winery. So getting their animals as far south away from the fires was one of the first steps they took when evacuating.</p><p>Other than that, Allen said they only packed the essentials, most of which were food, water, and pet crates for their two dogs and cat.</p><p>Allen said Daenen grabbed their home insurance papers and the blueprints for their home, which they renovated and rebuilt before the 2017 fire.</p><p>Allen grabbed two cases of wine.</p><p>"I don't think I'm regretting the fact that we had some wine with us, particularly last night," Allen said.</p><p>They also snagged some medicine and other little things, but they left everything else.</p><p>"What we can't replace is the five of us," Allen said, referring to Daenen and their three pets, which Allen described as being like their children.</p><p>They set off south toward San Francisco, along with thousands of other evacuees, rendering a hefty amount of clogged traffic.</p><p>"I think that's the longest drive I've ever experienced trying to get 45 miles," Allen said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of William Allen</span></p><p class="caption">Daenen and their two dogs and cat in their pet-friendly hotel room in San Francisco.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>They searched for pet-friendly hotels and found one in San Francisco's Presidio district, where they rested and ate for the first time in a while.</p><p>Since the fire started, Allen said they've been monitoring weather reports and wind patterns to keep tabs on the fire's growth and path, though he said relying on cell phone use in the midst of a power blackout isn't very efficient.</p><p>"The fact that there is no power for a million locations in the Bay Area makes evacuating far more complicated," Allen said.</p><p>Strong winds, called <a href="https://www.insider.com/california-fire-updates-sonoma-county-kincade-fire-2019-10">"Diablo winds," </a>have been cited as one of the contributing factors to the fire's fast pace, and another wind event was expected for Tuesday.</p><p>"We're well aware that we've got catastrophic winds coming in the early hours of the morning," Allen said on Monday evening.</p><p>The incoming gusts and the potential destruction they could cause is unnerving, and Allen said they've had trouble sleeping because of the anxiety.</p><p>"If we lose the winery, I don't know if we [can] even manage to survive," Allen said. "So that obviously stresses us to no end."</p><p>But what Allen said is even more concerning is the national publicity Sonoma is getting for the devastation it's experiencing at the hands of wildfires for the second time in two years.</p><p>"How many times can we have this in national news before people just say there are other places to vacate besides Sonoma County?" Allen said.</p><p>Allen said these are normally some of their busiest months of the year, with the harvest season being a big attraction for visitors.</p><p>"We are certainly beyond stressed about the health of our business," Allen said.</p><p>On Monday evening, Allen said he and Daenen were planning to go back to their farm in Fulton Tuesday morning since things seemed a little more under control.</p><p>Allen said they're going back to defend their home from spot fires, just like they did in 2017.</p><p>"We lived in the middle of this last time," Allen said. "We were literally sitting on our farm two years ago during 2017 fires and watching burning pieces of newspaper and embers float down and then running around and stomping them out."</p><p>He said his rural farm town of Fulton won't look like the other more populated neighborhoods that are being threatened.</p><p>"We're not a dense, high-population area like Windsor, so there's not going to be a hundred fire trucks patrolling up and down all these rural roads," Allen said.</p><p>Allen told Business Insider on Tuesday afternoon that he and Daenen were back in Fulton and preparing for the strong winds that are expected to blow through later that night.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of William Allen</span></p><p class="caption">Daenen and hers and Allen's donkeys.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>If the fire does close in on their property, Allen said they won't stay. They don't even plan to unpack their things from the car in case they end up having to make a run for it. But he said he feels like he needs to take action.</p><p>"I'm not prepared to just sit in a hotel room in San Francisco and do nothing," Allen said.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-google-pixel-4-event-in-12-minutes-2019-10">Watch Google's Pixel 4 event in 12 minutes</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

A California couple who was forced to evacuate their home and winery share what it's really like to endure the wildfires engulfing the state

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Our <keyword id="12002886" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate" source="Orion">climate</keyword> isn't the only thing that's changing. Some people's ideas of <keyword id="11916126" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="homeownership" source="Orion">homeownership</keyword> are, too.</li><li>Climate disasters - and money constraints - are making some people into voluntary "forever <keyword id="11964179" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="renters" source="Orion">renters</keyword>." </li><li>"The constant threat of wildfires has shifted my thoughts on what economic success looks like," graduate student Samuel Naujokas said.</li></ul><p>Whether you're a renter, <keyword id="12078171" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="homeowner" source="Orion">homeowner</keyword>, or landlord, it's common knowledge that the pandemic has shifted the housing market: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-rent-prices-plunge-overall-us-real-estate-recovering-2020-9">Rent has gone down in cities</a>, <a href="https://www.elevationoutdoors.com/magazine/october-november-2020/the-new-mountain-town-migration/">many former city commuters have left for small towns</a>, and crowded hardware stores indicate that people are looking to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/909264580/why-home-improvement-has-surged-and-how-its-changing-america">invest in the homes they're already in</a>. </p><p>For some young people thinking about the future, the thought of buying a home is viewed more as a risk than an indicator of economic success. This is especially true in the Bay Area, where the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bay-area-burned-out-house-sold-for-over-850k-cash-2021-8">sky-high housing prices</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-wildfire-crisis-getting-worse-climate-change-2019-10">climate change-induced increase in wildfires</a> are making <a href="https://www.abc10.com/article/life/millennials-rent-forever-number-grows/103-07165183-cb76-41d4-a5da-9b5f94439cd5">many young people</a> question the importance of buying a home in Northern California or beyond in the first place. </p><p>One such young person is Samuel Naujokas, a 23-year-old born in Healdsburg, California, and current graduate student at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. </p><p>Naujokas, who grew up in the home that his parents still own in Healdsburg, reflected on his experience during the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-kincade-fire-sonoma-county-2020-8">2019 Kincade fire</a> that came close to his family home. </p><div type="image" title="kincade fire" height="636" width="1024" msid="86399884" hostid="261"></div><p>"Basically every year [since then] I get a text from my mom asking something like, 'Alright, evacs are coming in, what do you want saved?'" he said. "And I give them a list of all of the sentimental stuff I want saved, and [my parents] evacuate. I think having to do that for the past four years has made me realize that this is all impermanent." </p><p>Naujokas said since Northern California wildfires began to escalate six years ago, his perspective on what to aspire for has changed - including his future potential for property ownership. </p><p>"The constant threat of wildfires taking away my family home has shifted my thoughts on buying property and even what economic success looks like," Naujokas said. "For me, having that personal, felt experience has informed my own planning on thinking about buying a house. </p><p>"Because maybe I don't want to buy one if it doesn't have as much meaning as we thought. Maybe there's something wrong with [the value we place on property ownership] to begin with." </p><p>To Naujokas, the threat of <keyword id="11896311" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate-change" source="Orion">climate change</keyword> to property is not wildfire-specific. The risk of property ownership is "very distinct with wildfires right now, and when we think of property damage from climate change that's what comes to mind," he said. "But the truth of the matter is, there's still going to be different threats wherever you go." </p><div type="image" title="kincade fire" height="683" width="1024" msid="86399886" hostid="261"></div><p>Before Naujokas started graduate school, he was living in Alaska and looking at climate-change adaptation plans with organizations like the US Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Environmental Protection Agency. He learned that the mitigation measures when it comes to the effect of climate change on homes are quite limited.  </p><p>"Millennials and Gen Zers looking to hold property decades from now are looking at how climate change will affect their investment," Naujokas said.</p><p>Economic success, to Naujokas, is "not so much owning a home and the value of a home."</p><p>"It's the ability to keep myself safe, and that the people around me are safe too," he said. "I think that's a key difference between millennials and Gen Xers - having the people around you factored into your definition of success." </p><p>That lesson became clear to Naujokas during the first wildfire season in California that he experienced. </p><p>"Your neighbors are your friends," he said. "When we all had to evacuate, the town leaders, firefighters, and community members came together, and that's just going to increase as climate change continues to present unprecedented conditions."  </p><div type="image" title="Glass Fire" height="1334" width="2000" msid="86399888" hostid="261"></div><p>Another such person is Courtney Beyer. A millennial who grew up in Los Altos, California and cur<keyword id="11948118" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="rent" source="Orion">rent</keyword>ly resides in Menlo Park, California, Beyer and her husband recently bought a home in Traverse City, Michigan, while continuing to rent in Menlo Park with their two small children. </p><p>"Last October, the Glass Fires started in Napa while I was pregnant with my second son," Beyer said. "I read an article about climate migration and areas that will become uninhabitable in the next 80 to 100 years. We did some research and bought a house in Traverse City as both a rental property and a bet that it will be one of the more inhabitable places in the United States." </p><p>Beyer reflected on being at an age where many of her friends are having children and thinking about buying homes in the area, and wondered whether she wanted her kids to grow up in an area exposed to wildfire smoke so regularly.</p><p>"One of my friends just bought this beautiful home, but it abuts a piece of land in the hills," Beyer said. "I couldn't help but think about the likelihood of wildfires encroaching on the area." </p><p>Like Naujokas, recent regional and global events have majorly shifted how Beyer views property ownership. </p><p>"It's interesting to look at how climate change seems to be affecting people who are the most set in their ways," Beyer said. "It's almost as if being flexible is the new American dream."</p>

Climate disaster turned these millennials into 'forever renters': 'Being flexible is the new American dream'

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Climate activist Greta Thunberg spoke to crowd outside Los Angeles City Hall on Friday, calling out the role of the climate crisis in California wildfires and condemning inaction against it.</li><li>"I visited Paradise in California, and I met with survivors who showed me around the devastation," she said to the crowd. "Street after street with no houses left. I heard heartbreaking stories. Eighteen-thousand buildings were destroyed, and at least 86 people died."</li><li>The young activist said that the onus is placed upon the youth to save the environment if older generations continue to fail to act on the climate crisis.</li><li>Despite touting a number of green environmental policies, California remains one of the biggest oil producers in the country, causing poor air quality in many populated cities.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>"Today in California, we can see the wildfires happening just around the corner, wildfires that are being intensified by the climate crisis," climate activist <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/greta-thunberg-bio-climate-change-activist-2019-9">Greta Thunberg</a> said to a large crowd gathered outside Los Angeles City Hall on Friday.</p><p>The 16-year-old from Sweden has been touring North America since August and has become the face of youth activism in the fight to combat climate change, visiting the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/24/us/greta-thunberg-whats-next-trnd/index.html">US, Canada, and Mexico</a>.</p><p>During her stop in Los Angeles, she discussed the role of climate change in California's devastating wildfires - wildfires that are currently burning across the state - and condemning inaction against it.</p><p>The night prior, the <a href="https://www.insider.com/maria-fire-easy-fire-ventura-county-california-2019-11">Maria Fire</a> sprung up in Ventura County up the coast, northwest of Los Angeles County, and quickly spread. Earlier that week, the <a href="https://www.lafd.org/news/getty-fire">74%-contained</a> Getty Fire forced evacuations in Los Angeles, and burned 10 residences. In Northern California, the <a href="https://www.insider.com/california-fire-updates-sonoma-county-kincade-fire-2019-10">Kincade Fire</a> has burned through more than 77,000 acres and is 70% contained.</p><p>Thunberg spoke at the Youth Climate Strike in Los Angeles, which was organized to protest fossil fuel and oil production in the state. Despite touting a number of environmental policies, California remains one of the <a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/energy-green/sd-fi-california-crudeoil-20180711-story.html">biggest oil producers</a> in the country, which leads to negative effects, like <a href="https://www.cleanwateraction.org/features/threats-oil-and-gas-production-california">poor air quality</a>, in many populated cities.</p><p>At the rally, Thunberg described her visit to Paradise, California, which was ravaged by the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-fire-burned-town-of-paradise-california-to-the-ground-2018-11?r=UK&amp;IR=T">Camp fire</a> in 2018, taking numerous lives and destroying thousands of buildings. The Camp fire was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in <a href="https://abc7news.com/most-destructive-wildfires-in-california-history/2516857/">California history</a>.</p><p>"I visited Paradise in California, and I met with survivors who showed me around the devastation," she said to the crowd. "Street after street with no houses left. I heard heartbreaking stories. Eighteen-thousand buildings were destroyed, and at least 86 people died."</p><p>According to a release, the strike was organized to "uplift three core demands for Governor [Gavin] Newsom around California's fossil fuel production":</p><ul><li>Roll out a 2,500-foot health and safety buffer to protect frontline communities;</li><li>Stop issuing any new fossil fuel permits to protect our climate future; and</li><li>Drop existing oil production with a just transition to a clean energy economy.</li></ul><p>The pollution that fuels the climate crisis is also affecting people's day-to-day lives. Youth activist Kevin Patel, 19, said he developed heart palpitations caused by the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-california-emissions-rules-la-smog-photos-2019-9">smog in Los Angeles</a> when he was in fifth grade, and he has dedicated much of his time to raising awareness and promoting action to solve the climate crisis ever since.</p><p>"It was a huge factor why I got involved in the climate crisis, because I knew that if I don't act, if I don't share my story, then how are other others in my community going to be aware of what's going on and how they're being affected as well?" Patel told Insider.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>Youth activist Cemre Gonen, 17, came down on a bus to Los Angeles from the Bay Area to assist in organizing the Youth Climate Strike in LA. She echoed Patel's sentiment on raising awareness, more notably in adults and people of power.</p><p>"I hope that power-holders are held accountable for their roles in causing the climate crisis," Gonen wrote in an email to Insider. "I hope that adults let go of their fear for progress, and take necessary action to save life as we know it.''</p><p>The onus has been placed upon the youth to save the environment if older generations continue to fail to act, Thunberg said.</p><p>"The older generations are failing us. They are failing future generations," she said. "But future generations do not have voice, and the biosphere doesn't have a voice."</p><p>"So we will be the voice that speaks up for them. We will be the voice that speaks up for ourselves," Thunberg continued.</p><p>Gonen wrote in the email that it is easy to lose hope with the current state of the climate crisis, but she said she takes her fear for the future to keep her motivated to make a difference.</p><p>"My generation literally has climate anxiety because we understand the gravity of this issue. So it is definitely easy to lose hope sometimes, especially when adults refuse to act, in fear of change," Gonen in the email. "However, I channel that frustration, anger, and disappointment into my work and use it to fuel my activism. I believe in us and the work that youth like me are doing."</p><p>"We are the hope," she continued, "and I believe that our society can change, because we have to."</p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-greta-thunberg-speaks-protests-communicates-2019-9">THE ART OF ACTIVISM: How Greta Thunberg's matter-of-fact way of speaking and taking action turned her into a global icon</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/greta-thunberg-ellen-degeneres-meeting-trump-waste-of-time-2019-11">Greta Thunberg told Ellen DeGeneres that meeting with President Trump would be 'a waste of time, really'</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/greta-thunberg-help-returning-to-europe-un-climate-summit-moved-2019-11">Greta Thunberg is stuck on the wrong continent after the year's most important UN climate-change summit got moved from Chile to Spain</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/greta-thunberg-asks-why-adults-mock-threaten-teenagers-2019-9">Greta Thunberg responds to 'haters,' asking why adults 'spend their time mocking and threatening teenagers and children for promoting science'</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-tweet-greta-thunberg-speech-un-climate-action-summit-2019-9">Trump said Greta Thunberg seems like she has 'a bright and wonderful future' the same day she gave an impassioned speech at the UN about the devastating impact of climate change</a></li></ul>

You Searched For "kincade fire" and got 10 results

As deadly fires force tens of thousands to evacuate in California, we look back on those who've lost their homes and businesses

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California winemakers are racing to salvage their grape harvests before wildfires destroy them

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Face-size chunks of ash fell from the sky in California wine country, where the Glass Complex Fire has forced 70,000 to evacuate

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Researchers created an aluminum blanket that wraps around homes to prevent them from burning down in a fire

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A look at how Descartes Labs is leveraging AI to alert fire managers of wildfires and decrease the damage on homes and habitats across the US

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Over 1,500 California fires in the last 6 years - including the deadliest ever - were caused by one company: PG&E. Here's what it could have done, but didn't.

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A California couple who was forced to evacuate their home and winery share what it's really like to endure the wildfires engulfing the state

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Climate disaster turned these millennials into 'forever renters': 'Being flexible is the new American dream'

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Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg condemns inaction against the climate crisis in Los Angeles as wildfires rage across California

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