Vatican City, Oct 11, 2020 / 09:30 am
Pope Francis expressed his concern Sunday for people suffering from the effects of wildfires in California and South America.
"I would like to express my closeness to the populations affected by the fires that are devastating so many regions of the planet, as well as to the volunteers and firefighters who risk their lives to extinguish the blazes," Pope Francis said at the end of his Angelus address Oct. 11.
"I am thinking of the West Coast of the United States, particularly California … May the Lord sustain those who are suffering the consequences of these catastrophes," he added.
A fire in northern California has grown to be larger than the state of Rhode Island, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The August Complex Fire was formed when hundreds of individual wildfires fused together creating California's first "gigafire".