Wildfires in California and Oregon have been dominating national headlines for the past several weeks. According to California’s state website, “this year’s acres burned is 26 times higher than the acres burned in 2019 for the same time period.”

There have been numerous causes identified by researchers, including climate change, hot and dry weather conditions, strong winds, and human contribution. In past weeks, “the sky in Oregon has been an orange color, and heaps of ashes were found laying outside,” according to Oregon.gov.

The fires have had extreme effects, such as destroying homes, lowering air quality, wiping out large clearings of land, and killing a total of 26 people as of Sept. 20. Many people, especially those with severe allergies or respiratory illnesses, have been staying inside due to the high air pollution.

In California alone, close to 19,000 firefighters are working toward containing 27 major wildlife fires. “Some fires are close to being contained,” according to California’s state website. However, as of now, a majority of the fires rage on, so full containment will take considerably longer.

As a response to the fires, many people have been advocating for reforestation, new research on how to limit climate change, and federal funds to be proactive and reduce the chances of something similar happening in the future.