As of this morning, the wildfires that have decimated Northern California’s wine and cannabis country had been mostly contained.
The Tubbs Fire, which affected more than 36,800 acres, was 95 percent contained. The Nuns Fire—the largest at 56,556 acres—was 94 percent contained. At more than 51,600 acres, the Atlas fire was closest to completely contained, at 97 percent. Area burned across Sonoma and Napa counties alone totaled 144,987 acres. In neighboring Mendocino County, the Redwood Valley Fire, which burned 36,523 acres, was updated today as 100 percent contained.
The CalFire website noted that overnight rain and increased humidity had helped firefighters, who have been fighting the historic blazes since October 9. More than 8,400 structures have been damaged or destroyed by the fires, according to officials. Media reported lack of temporary housing for victims, highlighting the difficulties for survivors that escaped with only their clothes or a few personal items.
Cannabis industry growers and business owners also are notably without the benefit of insurance to cover their losses, and are unable to access emergency federal relief, as other agriculturally based businesses would, due to federal prohibition on cannabis.
Last week, online platform WeCaring and its payment processor WePay shuttered a crowdfunder for cannabis industry fire victims, receiving national media attention—again, federal prohibitions on “cannabis-related” banking transactions played a role in a violation of WePay’s policy, which ended the fire victim crowdfunder.
Since then, several cannabis industry organizations have been forced to use more limited options, by hosting donation pages on their own organization websites and gathering contributions by whatever means possible. California Growers Association has partnered with Sonoma County Cannabis Alliance, Mendocino County Growers Association, Humboldt County Growers Alliance, and Nevada County Cannabis Alliance, for an online crowdfunder hosted on the CGA website; as of this morning, its had reached $4,220 of its goal of $25,000.
If you would like to make a monetary contribution to help cannabis industry victims, please, visit the CGA site here.
If you have been affected by the fires and would like to contact CGA, please, email [email protected]. Those who would like to contribute goods or services can also contact CGA via email.
The Sonoma County Growers Alliance website noted several industry businesses, including CannaCraft, Mercy Wellness, Alta Supply, and Rise Distribution.
