California Fire Season Will Probably Peak Close to Very End of Summer
Every June, California's seasonal rituals repeat. Kids graduate. Families head to the beach. Green hills turn brown. And fire season begins anew.
On Monday, the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection (CDF) declared the start of fire season for all Northern California counties, two weeks after declaring the same for Southern California. The announcement means wildland fire crews are boosted to full summer staffing levels at each of the 228 CDF stations in California as temperatures begin to rise.
The department has added roughly 1,500 seasonal firefighters to its year-round contingent of 3,800 firefighters.
Heavy winter rains this year -- the wettest since 1997 in the Bay Area -- are providing both good news and bad, fire officials say.
On one hand, the rain increased the amount of grasses and shrubs in foothills and other rural areas. During warm months, those can provide ready fuel for hot, fast-moving flames.
At the same time, however, the extra rain also increased the moisture content of trees. And because wet wood doesn't burn, the risk of huge fires probably won't peak until the very end of summer.
''The big fuels are wet, but the grasses already are drying out,'' said CDF Battalion Chief Dave Athey, at the agency's Almaden station on McKean Road in South San Jose. ''This will be one of those years where we really have to worry about September and October.''
The last time California had a year this wet, not much burned. In 1997, only 57,788 acres burned on lands the CDF oversees. That's only about one-third of the 168,134 acres that burned last year.
Fire commanders are still haunted by the massive infernos that charred San Diego and Riverside counties two years ago. That year, 2003, was the worst since 1945, with 404,328 acres burning.
As a result, state lawmakers passed new rules requiring rural homeowners to trim brush and grass back 100 feet from structures -- up from the old rule of 30 feet.
Distributed by the Associated Press
