Pandemic hits firefighters harder than last year, as wildfires flatten rural towns

"As wildfires rage across Western states, flattening rural towns and forcing thousands of people to evacuate, coronavirus cases and pandemic-related supply chain problems have made it harder to deploy firefighting resources to where they’re needed, fire officials say," Sophie Quinton reports for Stateline. "More firefighters appear to be falling ill with Covid-19 and quarantining this year than last year, the officials say, because of the highly contagious Delta variant and mixed adherence to Covid-19 safety measures such as masking, vaccinations and social distancing."

The increase in cases has alarmed officials in Western states, because fire-prone communities need as much help as possible to fight off the fires, Quinton reports. 

"Deploying enough firefighters, support staff and equipment to protect communities was always going to be tough this year, even without the delta surge. Fire risk has been high and many federal firefighting crews are understaffed, particularly in California,: Quinton reports. "More than 5.5 million acres have burned nationwide so far in 2021, slightly below the nearly 6.1 million acres that had burned by this time last year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, which coordinates nationwide firefighting efforts."