The fire department in California has already had to fight more than 3,500 forest fires this year up to mid-July. Together, they have burned around 220,000 hectares of land. That is more than five times the usual amount for this period. Last weekend alone, around 20,000 hectares fell victim to the fires. As it is still quite early in the fire season, Joe Tyler from the Californian Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said last week: „We are not just in a fire season, we are in a fire year„.