Record-breaking wildfires in California overwhelm firefighters, force evacuations: “I thought I was going to die. California, Oregon and Washington battle dozens of fires. Shocking Photos Show The Hellish Scenes From The West Coast Wildfires. All of these headlines are accurate. But none of them fully capture the experience of what’s happening in the Bay Area right now, even far from the fires. My lights are out. It’s basically pitch black in my house. And its nearly noon. (It’s pretty dark 120 meters above my house too. Here are some of my drone shots.) My son, home from school because of America’s unthinkable Covid-19 failure, came upstairs a few minutes ago, looked outside at complete darkness in the middle of the day and said, “Well, at least it’s not boiling hot.” This is what we’re giving our kids.