Terrifying footage shows Southern California fires nipping at a highway

Fires creeping in on daily life are becoming the new terrifying norm.
 By 
Marcus Gilmer
 on 

More harrowing footage of the California wildfires shows just how close the fires in the southern part of the state keep creeping to large urban areas.

The new video from ABC7 show the Peak Fire burning right up to the edge of a busy Highway 118 in Ventura County, forcing passing motorists to drive in lanes as far from the highway shoulder as possible while firefighters battled the blaze.

If there's any good news here, it's that the Peak Fire, which burned 186 acres, has been 100 percent contained according to California Fire officials.

But this footage also shows the horrific reality faced by Californians as they try to maintain normalcy even as these deadly fires continue to encroach upon their daily lives.

There's a certain terror in the normalization of an event like a helicopter dropping a load of water on a raging fire while regular rush hour traffic creeps by.

It's a grim reality driven home by scenes from all around the state, especially the town of Paradise, California, which has been all but wiped out by the Camp Fire, now the deadliest fire in the state's history.

While the Peak Fire may have been contained, Southern California is still being burned by both the Woolsey Fire, which has burned over 96,000 acres, and the Hill Fire, which has burned 4,500 acres.

And things will likely get worse in the coming days.

While the Hill Fire is 90 percent contained as of Tuesday morning, the Woolsey Fire is only 35 percent contained, and the Camp Fire 30 percent contained.

In the meantime, be sure to read about how to help the victims of these wildfires.

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Marcus Gilmer

Marcus Gilmer is Mashable's Assistant Real-Times News Editor on the West Coast, reporting on breaking news from his location in San Francisco. An Alabama native, Marcus earned his BA from Birmingham-Southern College and his MFA in Communications from the University of New Orleans. Marcus has previously worked for Chicagoist, The A.V. Club, the Chicago Sun-Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

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