5 shocking photos that put the California wildfires in perspective

Santa Rosa, California, after the flames.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Northern California is burning, leaving some neighborhoods as nothing more than charred, apocalyptic-seeming wastelands.

So far at least 31 people have died in the wind-fueled wildfires, which are sweeping through wine country just north of San Francisco. Still hundreds more are missing. Once-vibrant neighborhoods like Coffey Park in Santa Rosa have been incinerated, with nothing but ashes left where hundreds of suburban homes once stood. More than 2,800 homes are gone, Santa Rosa city officials said Thursday, as well as some 410,000 square feet of commercial space.

As of Thursday, the fires had decimated more than 191,000 acres of land, or about 300 square miles, across the northern part of the state, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Below, a look at the horrifying scale of the destruction. Kelly Gonsalves

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

(Image credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images)

(Image credit: Getty Images)

(Image credit: Getty Images)

(Image credit: Getty Images)

(Image credit: The Associated Press)

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.