For West Coast residents, the anxiety that comes with fire season is all too familiar. The unprecedented wildfires that continue to cause havoc have claimed the lives of at least eight people.
It's common to have an emergency bag -- filled with items like a first-aid kit, a flashlight, a portable cellphone battery pack and a map marked with at least two evacuation routes -- at the ready. And along with the emergency bag, a plan at the ready for places to stay if you need to evacuate.But this year, with air so thick with smoke it's hard to breathe, the fires, which span beyond California into Oregon and Washington, seem worse.
Here's how you can help Some, like Juliana Park, narrowly escaped one of the many fires while on a getaway over Labor Day Weekend. The 24-year-old, who lives in Mountain View, had gone on a five-hour road trip from the Bay Area toward Sierra National Forest for a backpacking trip last Saturday. Her group had hiked for about an hour when they heard lightning. "That was our cue to turn around," she told CNN.
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