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Firefighters in California are making progress fighting the massive wildfire that has been spreading for five days. More than 4,000 firefighters put out the main fire lines on Thursday and Friday.

However, the fires can continue for another week. Yet, this has been a huge accomplishment for firefighters since they were losing the battle to the wildfires for a couple of days.

35 people have died by Friday October 13 in Northern California. This is the most that have been killed by a wildfire in California.

The wildfire has burned over 34,000 acres so far in the Sonoma and Napa counties.

On Friday evening, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office issued mandatory evacuations in northern Geyserville and the Alexander Valley of Healdsburg.

The wildfire is moving fast and spreading.

More than 90,000 people have fled their homes in the region and hundreds still remain missing.

The string of wildfires has burned more than 212,000 acres in Northern California. That is about seven times the area of the city of San Francisco. Wow!

Across California, wildfires have destroyed more than 5,700 structures, Cal Fire reported.

Santa Rosa lost 2,834 homes which is about 5 percent of the city’s housing stock. They also lost nearly 400,000 square feet of commercial space.

The Mayor of Santa Rosa expects those numbers to grow as the days continue.

The national weather service had issued another flag warning for the North and East Bay hills on Friday. Threats of low humidity and high wind gusts which create higher fire danger were reported.

Air quality remains an issue in the cities of Northern California. The Smokey atmosphere has been so bad that planes carrying fire retardant couldn’t take off in order to help attack the wildfires.

Communication towers have been damaged in areas, leaving people unable to contact their relatives to inform them of their status.

The residents in California have been coming together and helping one another though.

For example, Vanessa Gijon and her cousin spent two hours Friday making homemade burritos for the hundreds of evacuees at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, one of the largest shelters.

“It’s not a community if we don’t come together when something bad is happening,” said the 21-year-old Santa Rosa resident. “If I can make their day brighter then that’s all I want — for them to have a smile on their face and a plate of hot food.”

Yet, another devastating event has happened and is not over yet. But as humans. we have learned to survive and help one another. Let’s hope firefighters can put this fire out completely and save lives.