You can hear the fear, frustration and urgency in the man’s voice as he urges the cars in front of him to go more quickly. This harrowing video of a man driving through the California wildfires with his cat is a nail-biter!
You can almost feel the suffocating heat as you stare transfixed at the screen, holding your breath to see if the driver makes it out unscathed. The fire rages around him on both sides as he fearfully ‘talks’ to the cars ahead of him, willing them to go faster, even as you know there are probably other cars ahead of them preventing them from doing so. Add the greatly reduced visibility from the smoke and you have a drive that you just know will haunt this man’s nightmares!
Along for the escape out of camera range, we can hear the man’s pet cat crying her unhappiness with the situation. He speaks soothingly to her as he drives. Finally deciding the car is going fast enough that he should stop filming.
Even watching this video, it’s hard to even fathom the amount of destruction the wildfires in California have caused this year. And it’s even harder to imagine the sheer terror this man must have felt as he drove right through the midst of it!
California has been ravaged by multiple large fires this year, starting in January with the Thomas Fire. Then in July, there was the Mendocino Complex fire. The Carr Fire was in August and now there have been three fires in November.
Atmospheric conditions in the state have meant that hot temperatures and high winds combined with an abundance of dry underbrush create the perfect circumstances for fires to grow. So far, 6,700 buildings–mostly homes–have been destroyed, and more than 25 lives were lost.