Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
Former Regina resident Don Kollins is seeing history unfold right in front of him these days.
Kollins, who lives just outside of San Francisco, has a front-row seat as wildfires burn out of control in California.
So far in 2020, fires have burned more than 3.4 million acres in the state, an all-time high. The so-called August Complex is the largest fire in California history, having already burned nearly 790,000 acres.
“The stubble fires in Saskatchewan can be under control quickly,” Kollins, a product of Dysart, said during Wednesday’s Greg Morgan Morning Show. “These things go so fast, they create their own weather systems. There are ‘firenadoes’ that go through towns.
“Last year, we had the Camp Fire. It burned through Paradise, California and killed 86 people. It’s so quick that you can’t get out of the way.
“It’s crazy. When you see the fires that are burning to this magnitude, it’s nuts.”
More than 25 people have been killed by the fires in California. Kollins said the smoke in the air has been a serious issue in his area.
“You’re being advised to stay inside or limit the outdoor activity,” he said. “We even thought the San Francisco 49ers (NFL) game was going to be cancelled on Sunday. It’s quite shocking that they actually played it.
“You had an orange air day (in Regina) the other day (because of the smoke) … The orange day here was a couple of days earlier. It had the streetlights of San Francisco on right through noon. It was so dark and so orange.”
“If there was a picture of Mars, that was it.”
