This Was a Good Year for Prescribed Burns. Why Didn't California Do More?
What California's Wet Winter Means for Fire Season
Cal Fire Fumbles Key Responsibilities to Prevent Catastrophic Wildfires Despite Historic Budget
These Big Plans to Protect California Homes From Wildfire Fell Short in the Legislature
California Firefighters Use Supercomputers to Forecast Wildfires
The Largest, Deadliest and Most Destructive Fires in California History
Fuel Matters: Why Wildfire Behavior Depends on What's Burning
California Prison Inmates Battle Fires
California Wildfires Are Breaking the Rules by Burning Downhill Fast
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Why Didn't California Do More?","publishDate":1696935641,"format":"standard","headTitle":"This Was a Good Year for Prescribed Burns. Why Didn’t California Do More? | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>For forest managers to conduct prescribed burns, weather conditions have to be just right: not too hot or windy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not too damp, but also not too dry. Just right, Goldilocks, in the middle,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, experts say more prescribed burning is needed across California to prevent out-of-control megafires. That fact is even more pronounced in cool, wet years like this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mild weather conditions provided the perfect backdrop for fire agencies to conduct large-scale controlled burns, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973196/the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">help prevent\u003c/a> extreme wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most days this year that were favorable for it, there really wasn’t much-prescribed fire activity,” Swain said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prescribed burning is expected to get harder with climate change. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00993-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New research\u003c/a> shows the number of safe burn days across the West is expected to drop by 17% by the year 2060. The Bay Area could lose as many as 30 ideal burn days each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re already not doing enough, and climate change is going to come along and make it significantly harder, then what hope do we have for really scaling this up in the way that many ecologists and fire scientists think we should be doing?” said Swain, who co-authored the research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Gregg Bratcher, division chief, Cal Fire\"]‘This year was rough. By the time we were getting windows to actually get some prescribed fire done, we were walking into fire season.’[/pullquote]For a century, California has suppressed wildfires. Today, the state’s forests are overgrown and littered with fuel — primed to burn. Ecologists and Indigenous tribal groups have long criticized forest managers for not using “good fire,” as it’s sometimes called, to help keep forests in check.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The floors are littered with trees and brush and invasive species that have taken over,” said Yurok tribe member Elizabeth Azzuz. “When that happens, it kills all the native and indigenous plants in the understory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Azzuz directs Indigenous and family burning for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.culturalfire.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cultural Fire Management Council\u003c/a> and facilitates controlled burns on Yurok tribal land located in far Northern California along the Klamath Basin. Typically, they can only conduct two burns per year. But this year, given the weather, they managed to squeeze in one additional burn in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s rare that we get a June burn window, very rare,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s fire agency did conduct prescribed burns this year — though fewer than normal, said Gregg Bratcher, who oversees Cal Fire’s prescribed fire program in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year was rough,” he said. “By the time we were getting windows to actually get some prescribed fire done, we were walking into fire season.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=arts_13925067 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/DSC04885-1020x680.jpg']While the climate models may have shown wide open windows for controlled burns, Bratcher said the rainy, wet winter and spring months made it difficult to light fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lost a lot of burn days because it was just too wet,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that rain did tamp down California’s wildfire season this year. The state experienced far fewer and less destructive fires. Lightning touched off some of the biggest ones that burned across remote areas in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Due to safe weather conditions and their remoteness, forest managers and tribes allowed them to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These fires have been doing really important work,” said Tony Marks-Block, ecological anthropologist at CSU East Bay, adding that these types of ecologically beneficial fire have been largely eliminated by fire suppression since last century. “In future years when lightning strikes again, or there’s an accidental fire initiated by a person, that fire will not be as extreme because there’s less fuel to burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from those fires did drift down and dirty the air across the Bay Area for several days in September. Marks-Block said these kinds of low severity fires can produce poor air quality but “they reduce the likelihood of future catastrophic fire events and longer periods of poor air quality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians might need to get used to shorter periods of semi-regular, smoky conditions to avoid weeks-long stretches of choking, hazardous air like the Bay Area lived through during the firestorms of 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going forward, Cal Fire’s Bratcher said the agency may have to rely more on managing the forest by hand during wet years like this one, using chainsaws and wood chippers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The landscape will dictate what tools in the toolbox we can use,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While prescribed burning is one of the best ways to manage the forests, they can’t rely on it exclusively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California needs way more prescribed burns to prevent out-of-control megafires.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704845878,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":25,"wordCount":823},"headData":{"title":"This Was a Good Year for Prescribed Burns. Why Didn't California Do More? | KQED","description":"California needs way more prescribed burns to prevent out-of-control megafires.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"This Was a Good Year for Prescribed Burns. Why Didn't California Do More?","datePublished":"2023-10-10T11:00:41.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:17:58.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Wildfire","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1984593/a-good-year-for-good-fire-california-didnt-take-avantage","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For forest managers to conduct prescribed burns, weather conditions have to be just right: not too hot or windy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not too damp, but also not too dry. Just right, Goldilocks, in the middle,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, experts say more prescribed burning is needed across California to prevent out-of-control megafires. That fact is even more pronounced in cool, wet years like this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mild weather conditions provided the perfect backdrop for fire agencies to conduct large-scale controlled burns, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973196/the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">help prevent\u003c/a> extreme wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most days this year that were favorable for it, there really wasn’t much-prescribed fire activity,” Swain said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prescribed burning is expected to get harder with climate change. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00993-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New research\u003c/a> shows the number of safe burn days across the West is expected to drop by 17% by the year 2060. The Bay Area could lose as many as 30 ideal burn days each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’re already not doing enough, and climate change is going to come along and make it significantly harder, then what hope do we have for really scaling this up in the way that many ecologists and fire scientists think we should be doing?” said Swain, who co-authored the research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘This year was rough. By the time we were getting windows to actually get some prescribed fire done, we were walking into fire season.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Gregg Bratcher, division chief, Cal Fire","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For a century, California has suppressed wildfires. Today, the state’s forests are overgrown and littered with fuel — primed to burn. Ecologists and Indigenous tribal groups have long criticized forest managers for not using “good fire,” as it’s sometimes called, to help keep forests in check.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The floors are littered with trees and brush and invasive species that have taken over,” said Yurok tribe member Elizabeth Azzuz. “When that happens, it kills all the native and indigenous plants in the understory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Azzuz directs Indigenous and family burning for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.culturalfire.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cultural Fire Management Council\u003c/a> and facilitates controlled burns on Yurok tribal land located in far Northern California along the Klamath Basin. Typically, they can only conduct two burns per year. But this year, given the weather, they managed to squeeze in one additional burn in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s rare that we get a June burn window, very rare,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s fire agency did conduct prescribed burns this year — though fewer than normal, said Gregg Bratcher, who oversees Cal Fire’s prescribed fire program in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year was rough,” he said. “By the time we were getting windows to actually get some prescribed fire done, we were walking into fire season.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13925067","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/DSC04885-1020x680.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>While the climate models may have shown wide open windows for controlled burns, Bratcher said the rainy, wet winter and spring months made it difficult to light fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lost a lot of burn days because it was just too wet,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that rain did tamp down California’s wildfire season this year. The state experienced far fewer and less destructive fires. Lightning touched off some of the biggest ones that burned across remote areas in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Due to safe weather conditions and their remoteness, forest managers and tribes allowed them to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These fires have been doing really important work,” said Tony Marks-Block, ecological anthropologist at CSU East Bay, adding that these types of ecologically beneficial fire have been largely eliminated by fire suppression since last century. “In future years when lightning strikes again, or there’s an accidental fire initiated by a person, that fire will not be as extreme because there’s less fuel to burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from those fires did drift down and dirty the air across the Bay Area for several days in September. Marks-Block said these kinds of low severity fires can produce poor air quality but “they reduce the likelihood of future catastrophic fire events and longer periods of poor air quality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians might need to get used to shorter periods of semi-regular, smoky conditions to avoid weeks-long stretches of choking, hazardous air like the Bay Area lived through during the firestorms of 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going forward, Cal Fire’s Bratcher said the agency may have to rely more on managing the forest by hand during wet years like this one, using chainsaws and wood chippers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The landscape will dictate what tools in the toolbox we can use,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While prescribed burning is one of the best ways to manage the forests, they can’t rely on it exclusively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1984593/a-good-year-for-good-fire-california-didnt-take-avantage","authors":["11362"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_5194","science_113"],"featImg":"science_1984596","label":"source_science_1984593"},"science_1983097":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1983097","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1983097","score":null,"sort":[1688036429000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"what-californias-wet-winter-means-for-fire-season","title":"What California's Wet Winter Means for Fire Season","publishDate":1688036429,"format":"standard","headTitle":"What California’s Wet Winter Means for Fire Season | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>The series of 31 atmospheric rivers that drenched California this past winter has wildfire officials and scientists breathing sighs of relief — for the most part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a coalition of state and federal fire directors, which puts out regular \u003ca href=\"https://gacc.nifc.gov/oncc/predictive/outlooks/Outlook_NOps.pdf\">predictions about wildfire season in Northern California (PDF)\u003c/a>, the potential for significant fires this year is normal to below normal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That Northern California Geographic Area Coordination Center’s prediction comes from a compilation of factors, chief among them weather (past, present and future) and fuel moisture (how much water trees and plants are holding onto). Given the wet, cool winter and spring months, this year’s fire season is off to a slow start. The ground is still wet and grasses, shrubs and trees are holding onto that moisture, making them less likely to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same thing as when you try to start a campfire: You don’t use wet wood. It’s very hard to get wet wood to ignite,” said Craig Clements, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/wildfire/team/faculty.php\">director\u003c/a> of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San José State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"California Statewide Rainfall/Acres Burned (2000-2022) \" aria-label=\"Scatter Plot\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-61l7B\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/61l7B/4/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>But what about all that extra vegetation?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Maybe you’ve heard that all that rain means more vegetation, and that more vegetation means more fuel for wildfires. That’s true — but only in certain ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, you might’ve noticed grasses are extra tall this year due to all the rain. Grassland ecosystems are certainly more dense this year and once those grasses cure, they’ll be primed for burning. Thus, if conditions are ripe for fires in August, September and October, grassy environments could be at increased risk. That risk could spill over into next year, too, depending on the weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year is going to be more a function of the soil moisture content being so high,” said Clements. In other words, because grasses, shrubs and trees are holding onto their moisture longer than usual, the window for them to cure — and for severe wildfire risk — is narrower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, Clements added, grass fires are among the least concerning to firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re dangerous, they spread rapidly, but aircraft suppression works really well on grass fires,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire ramped up its flight suppression last year, which the agency said helped prevent wildfires from blazing out of control.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>So where will fires be worst this year?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In short: likely in the coastal grasslands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we do get significant heat waves or wind events in August, September and October, there could be a high level of fire activity in [the grasslands],” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a recent live YouTube \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E45I9YeO0ek\">video\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the Bay Area is considered coastal grassland and, depending on the late summer weather — particularly heat waves followed by gusty, dry offshore winds — the region could see increased fire activity later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, forest and mountain ecosystems like the Sierra Nevada are still blanketed in snow, which could mean they’ll be spared this fire season. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/03/30/california-snowpack-record-sierra/\">record-breaking snowpack in the mountains is lingering into the summer months\u003c/a>, thereby decreasing fire danger. Even when it all melts later this summer, the fuel moisture will likely stay high enough to ward off any severe burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How will this summer’s weather factor in?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Of course all of these predictions are contingent upon the weather, which in California is notoriously fickle. June has already been cooler and wetter than usual, and with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\">El\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\">Niño\u003c/a> conditions here, that trend is likely to continue later on this year. That narrows the window for high fire danger conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that window will still exist. Although fuel moisture is higher than normal right now, the tall grasses and shrubs will cure at some point this summer, likely in August, and will be ready to burn. August, September and October are notoriously hot, dry and windy across California, and even the dozens of atmospheric rivers from the previous winter won’t be enough to quell the fire season entirely. That’s thanks in part to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re getting more fire weather days and worse high fire risk days because of climate change,” said Clements. “It’s day-to-day weather that really drives fire behavior on the ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One heatwave can drastically change the fire danger outlook. “It can happen just in a matter of days,” said Clements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s too soon to know how those late summer months will play out weather-wise, but one thing is for sure: There will be fires in California this year. Because fire is a natural part of the state’s landscape, and many ecosystems are adapted to it and even need it to survive and thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A group of fire directors say the potential for big fires this year is much less than in recent years. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704845974,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":true,"iframeSrcs":["https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/61l7B/4/"],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":22,"wordCount":823},"headData":{"title":"What California's Wet Winter Means for Fire Season | KQED","description":"A group of fire directors say the potential for big fires this year is much less than in recent years. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"What California's Wet Winter Means for Fire Season","datePublished":"2023-06-29T11:00:29.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:19:34.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Wildfire ","audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/ead9443b-000b-47bb-a085-b02801224935/audio.mp3","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1983097/what-californias-wet-winter-means-for-fire-season","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The series of 31 atmospheric rivers that drenched California this past winter has wildfire officials and scientists breathing sighs of relief — for the most part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a coalition of state and federal fire directors, which puts out regular \u003ca href=\"https://gacc.nifc.gov/oncc/predictive/outlooks/Outlook_NOps.pdf\">predictions about wildfire season in Northern California (PDF)\u003c/a>, the potential for significant fires this year is normal to below normal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That Northern California Geographic Area Coordination Center’s prediction comes from a compilation of factors, chief among them weather (past, present and future) and fuel moisture (how much water trees and plants are holding onto). Given the wet, cool winter and spring months, this year’s fire season is off to a slow start. The ground is still wet and grasses, shrubs and trees are holding onto that moisture, making them less likely to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same thing as when you try to start a campfire: You don’t use wet wood. It’s very hard to get wet wood to ignite,” said Craig Clements, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/wildfire/team/faculty.php\">director\u003c/a> of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San José State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"California Statewide Rainfall/Acres Burned (2000-2022) \" aria-label=\"Scatter Plot\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-61l7B\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/61l7B/4/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>But what about all that extra vegetation?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Maybe you’ve heard that all that rain means more vegetation, and that more vegetation means more fuel for wildfires. That’s true — but only in certain ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, you might’ve noticed grasses are extra tall this year due to all the rain. Grassland ecosystems are certainly more dense this year and once those grasses cure, they’ll be primed for burning. Thus, if conditions are ripe for fires in August, September and October, grassy environments could be at increased risk. That risk could spill over into next year, too, depending on the weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year is going to be more a function of the soil moisture content being so high,” said Clements. In other words, because grasses, shrubs and trees are holding onto their moisture longer than usual, the window for them to cure — and for severe wildfire risk — is narrower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, Clements added, grass fires are among the least concerning to firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re dangerous, they spread rapidly, but aircraft suppression works really well on grass fires,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire ramped up its flight suppression last year, which the agency said helped prevent wildfires from blazing out of control.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>So where will fires be worst this year?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In short: likely in the coastal grasslands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we do get significant heat waves or wind events in August, September and October, there could be a high level of fire activity in [the grasslands],” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a recent live YouTube \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E45I9YeO0ek\">video\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the Bay Area is considered coastal grassland and, depending on the late summer weather — particularly heat waves followed by gusty, dry offshore winds — the region could see increased fire activity later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, forest and mountain ecosystems like the Sierra Nevada are still blanketed in snow, which could mean they’ll be spared this fire season. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/03/30/california-snowpack-record-sierra/\">record-breaking snowpack in the mountains is lingering into the summer months\u003c/a>, thereby decreasing fire danger. Even when it all melts later this summer, the fuel moisture will likely stay high enough to ward off any severe burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How will this summer’s weather factor in?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Of course all of these predictions are contingent upon the weather, which in California is notoriously fickle. June has already been cooler and wetter than usual, and with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\">El\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\">Niño\u003c/a> conditions here, that trend is likely to continue later on this year. That narrows the window for high fire danger conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that window will still exist. Although fuel moisture is higher than normal right now, the tall grasses and shrubs will cure at some point this summer, likely in August, and will be ready to burn. August, September and October are notoriously hot, dry and windy across California, and even the dozens of atmospheric rivers from the previous winter won’t be enough to quell the fire season entirely. That’s thanks in part to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re getting more fire weather days and worse high fire risk days because of climate change,” said Clements. “It’s day-to-day weather that really drives fire behavior on the ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One heatwave can drastically change the fire danger outlook. “It can happen just in a matter of days,” said Clements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s too soon to know how those late summer months will play out weather-wise, but one thing is for sure: There will be fires in California this year. Because fire is a natural part of the state’s landscape, and many ecosystems are adapted to it and even need it to survive and thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1983097/what-californias-wet-winter-means-for-fire-season","authors":["11362"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_5194","science_4877","science_194","science_1596","science_3464","science_113"],"featImg":"science_1983108","label":"source_science_1983097"},"science_1979560":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1979560","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1979560","score":null,"sort":[1655794897000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"cal-fire-fumbles-key-responsibilities-to-prevent-catastrophic-wildfires-despite-historic-budget","title":"Cal Fire Fumbles Key Responsibilities to Prevent Catastrophic Wildfires Despite Historic Budget","publishDate":1655794897,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Cal Fire Fumbles Key Responsibilities to Prevent Catastrophic Wildfires Despite Historic Budget | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>Richard A. Wilson is worried about wildfires this summer, amid dry conditions, extreme temperatures, punishing winds and the amplification of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are very vulnerable,” the 90-year-old said while looking out the window of his house on Buck Mountain, part of a 3,000-acre cattle ranch spanning Mendocino and Trinity counties that has been in his family for 80 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilson estimates about 70% of his land — the whole northern end, including grassland, and pine and Douglas fir timberland — has burned in recent years. It was hit by the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire and the 2020 August Complex Fire, both among the largest fires in state history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The scale of the fires covered the country in a way we hadn’t seen, in size or intensity,” Wilson recalled.[pullquote align='right' citation='Richard Wilson, former head of Cal Fire']‘Their business [now] is putting fires out. The bigger the fires, the more people they need to put the fires out. That’s a complete reverse of somebody trying to deal with the forest so if there is a fire, it doesn’t get out of control and burn the whole thing down.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires in California have burned nearly 7 million acres in the last two years alone. It is not only the size of the fires but also the destruction that’s breathtaking. In just the 2021 fire season, the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville and the Caldor Fire devastated the foothills community of Grizzly Flats. Both were the first fires in modern state history to burn across the Sierra Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, Wilson fears, will be dangerous, as well: “We are headed into a tenuous time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilson is not just any worried landowner: He’s the former head of Cal Fire, the state department responsible for fighting wildfires and managing forestland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while Cal Fire is broadly recognized as a leader in firefighting, Wilson says it is also partly to blame for the looming danger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he led the department in the 1990s, he claims it viewed caring for forest health as a primary mission. Foresters are trained to see wooded areas as living ecosystems, and know how to make them more fire-resilient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the years after his tenure, he says the culture changed. Firefighting, not forestry, became the route to advancement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And it’s now a fire department. A very good fire department. But it’s not a forestry department,” Wilson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Cal Fire is at an inflection point: trying to return to a greater emphasis on fire mitigation and forest health, while still working to protect communities from historic and deadly wildfires. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature lavished the department with record amounts of money for prescribed burns, brush clearing and cutting fuel breaks. But money alone does not solve the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire has publicly signaled a commitment to rebalancing its priorities. But a monthslong investigation by The California Newsroom, a public media collaboration, found that the department continues to fumble key responsibilities related to forest management and wildfire mitigation, potentially leaving the state at greater risk of catastrophic fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigation found:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The state set aside a record $1.5 billion for wildfire prevention and forest health in 2021. However, Cal Fire’s forest management hiring remains stagnant, while its firefighting staffing has ballooned.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cal Fire is struggling to track wildfire prevention projects that experts say are desperately needed to protect communities from destructive wildfires. The department still can’t determine how many acres of work it completed and funded through grants in the fiscal year ending in June 2021.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cal Fire has taken years to implement laws passed by the state Legislature. A program, required under state law to bolster the prescribed-burn workforce, suffered nearly a year of delay. So far, only two burn bosses have been certified, slowing the pace of protective projects. Experts say this delay has caused a loss of opportunities to enact community-protecting work.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>For at least four years, Cal Fire has failed to send its annual report to the Legislature detailing the department’s fire prevention efforts. The report, required by law, is an inventory of Cal Fire’s efforts and helps lawmakers understand the state’s progress on protecting vulnerable communities.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire has increased its output during the past five years. It completed fire prevention work — directly or through grants — on 105,000 acres in the fiscal year that ended in June 2020. The department could not provide a more current total.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/8.12.20-CA-Shared-Stewardship-MOU.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tasked\u003c/a> Cal Fire, along with partners that control state and private land, with performing 500,000 acres of forest management and fire mitigation work every year by 2025. But progress toward that goal has been slow, in part because a key state program \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2022/04/12/newsom-hailed-this-critical-wildfire-prevention-program-two-years-on-it-hasnt-completed-a-single-project/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">failed to increase project completions\u003c/a>. [pullquote align='right' citation='Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler']‘Watching these fires get larger and more damaging since 2014, I sincerely recognize the need to change the way we do — and have changed the way that we do — business.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview, Cal Fire’s Joe Tyler, who was appointed chief in March, said the department is making progress on improving forest health and protecting communities in advance of catastrophic fires by “investing in community preparedness and mitigation” and “continuing to do those fuels projects across the board.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He points to this year’s creation of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/p24fmjyg/cwpm-news-release_2022.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation division\u003c/a>, which aims to “develop, prioritize and implement strategies and projects that create fire adapted communities and landscapes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Tyler said the longer, more extreme wildfire seasons — coupled with the pandemic — have left the department’s workforce “fatigued.” That has affected Cal Fire’s administrative, forest management and fire suppression capabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tyler also acknowledged the need to change Cal Fire’s culture so it focuses more on prevention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Watching these fires get larger and more damaging since 2014, I sincerely recognize the need to change the way we do — and have changed the way that we do — business,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire practitioners like Margo Robbins, executive director of the Cultural Fire Management Council, argue this change at Cal Fire is long overdue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that they have forgotten that forestry is part of their responsibility, quite frankly,” said Robbins, whose expertise is in setting intentional fires that benefit the landscape and can protect communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She noted that Cal Fire is “moving in the right direction” by boosting investment in fire mitigation and fuel reduction. And the department has helped accommodate cultural prescribed burning led by Native American communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But “they have a ways to go,” Robbins added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they would focus more on that management piece, I think we would be seeing a very different scenario on our landscapes and a very different scenario in terms of wildfires,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Rebranding the department, changing the culture\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979580\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1979580\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Firefighters in orange and yellow uniforms stand in front of a burning hillside.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut-800x604.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut-1020x770.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut-768x580.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut-1536x1160.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters from the State of California and the Orange County Fire Authority on a controlled burn in Crystal Cove State Park, June 27, 1998. \u003ccite>(Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back when Wilson ran Cal Fire in the 1990s, it was known by its official name: the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. He says during those years he made sure foresters — who are trained in managing forest health — had a lot of say. He feels their voice has disappeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/jwpajqnx/foresters-and-directors.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">photo lineup of Cal Fire’s past executive roster\u003c/a> , Wilson is the last chief wearing a suit and tie. All subsequent chiefs are wearing uniforms with badges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their business [now] is putting fires out,” Wilson said. “The bigger the fires, the more people they need to put the fires out. That’s a complete reverse of somebody trying to deal with the forest so if there is a fire, it doesn’t get out of control and burn the whole thing down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new chief, Tyler, is a 30-year veteran of the department who previously oversaw aspects of Cal Fire’s firefighting and emergency response. He said he witnessed the culture change, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I recall far ago in my career, in the ’90s, where fuels treatment, fuels reduction, vegetation management was an extremely high priority of the department,” Tyler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979575\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1979575\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-800x642.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"642\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-800x642.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-1020x818.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-160x128.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-768x616.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-1536x1232.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM.png 1588w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photoline up of Cal Fire’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/jwpajqnx/foresters-and-directors.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">executive roster\u003c/a> from 1990 to the present. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But then, with the onset of larger and more damaging fires, the department’s focus increasingly shifted to suppression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The name “Cal Fire” embodies this tension. In 2006, the Legislature passed a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=200520060AB1423\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">law\u003c/a> allowing The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to rebrand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of the bill — including the department’s firefighters union — argued the change was “\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22015888-ab-1423-assembly-bill-bill-analysis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">necessary to reflect [the department’s] primary role as a fire-fighting agency.\u003c/a> ” But the department itself had opposed the legislation, worried that the new moniker would obscure its forest management mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These tensions are once again at the fore as California faces a new wildfire reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Record investment, few new fire-prevention hires\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Last year, Newsom and lawmakers allocated a record $1.5 billion for wildfire prevention and forest management, with the bulk of it going to Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a record amount. As of April, about half of the $1.5 billion had been “committed” to specific projects and initiatives, \u003ca href=\"https://resources.ca.gov/-/media/CNRA-Website/Files/Initiatives/Forest-Stewardship/Wildfire-Resilience-Program/2022-04-29-Wildfire-Resilience-Budget-Report.pdf\">according\u003c/a> to a recent report from the Natural Resources Agency, which oversees Cal Fire. The state has up to seven years to spend the bulk of the investment; some money may have to be spent sooner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency says the committed money is going to good use. “We’ve launched over 550 new projects with that funding,” said Jessica Morse, deputy secretary for forest and wildland resilience with the Natural Resources Agency. “Which is pretty fast — for bureaucracy, from appropriation — within less than a year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of these projects are specific wildfire prevention and forest health efforts, according to a chart on the agency’s \u003ca href=\"https://resources.ca.gov/Initiatives/Forest-Stewardship/Wildfire-Resilience-Program?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">website\u003c/a>. For example, the Tuolumne County Resource Conservation District is planning a 641-acre fuel break to protect the communities of Groveland and Big Oak Flat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of projects don’t turn dirt or remove dangerous brush. Some fund studies of mitigation techniques and vegetation types. Another pays a consulting firm half-a-million dollars to develop a communications strategy for the governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of other projects are related to climate change resilience, but have no immediate connection to wildfires. For example, a $600,000 allocation will help the city of Glendale, in Los Angeles County, plant 500 trees within the most “tree-poor area of the City.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of that money would go to distributing pamphlets to urban property owners on “the benefits of trees and tree care,” the project description reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979578\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979578 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM-800x541.png\" alt=\"Chart showing rising costs of responding to wildfires.\" width=\"800\" height=\"541\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM-800x541.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM-1020x690.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM-160x108.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM-768x520.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM.png 1076w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State spending on firefighting has more than tripled since 2005, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4457\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Legislative Analyst’s Office\u003c/a>. Despite recent increases, spending on resource management and fire prevention is still a small fraction of the total. \u003ccite>(LAO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In spite of last year’s investment, the bulk of Cal Fire’s overall spending remains focused on fire suppression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last three fiscal years, Cal Fire allocated nearly $8 billion for “fire protection,” according to figures provided by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, or LAO. That money is used “to attack fires quickly and aggressively … until the fire is under control,” according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebudget.ca.gov/2022-23/pdf/GovernorsBudget/3000/3540.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the department’s budget\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During those three years, the department allocated about $1.5 billion for “resource management,” which according to the department’s budget is for the “regulation of timber harvesting,” “coordination of climate and forest restoration” and “vegetation management projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staffing and new hires also heavily favor fire suppression. In the last three years, “fire protection” positions jumped from 7,076 to 8,187, according to figures provided by the state Department of Finance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(In an interview, senior Cal Fire officials noted that some positions in the department’s “fire protection” division focus on fire prevention work. About 3% of the division’s staff are described as “fire prevention” positions, according to Department of Finance figures.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During that same time period, Cal Fire’s “resource management” division increased by 31 positions to a total of 518 — despite the massive investment in forest health and wildfire mitigation last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Note: Every department’s budget includes staffing figures, but the Department of Finance cautioned that some of the numbers for Cal Fire in recent years needed to be updated. The Department of Finance provided updated, accurate figures in response to a request from The California Newsroom.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts acknowledge the need to ramp up fire suppression forces in the face of extreme wildfires. But they argue there needs to be a complementary increase in resource management hiring to prevent catastrophic wildfires in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robbins, with the Cultural Fire Management Council, called the hiring disparity “startling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Looking at these numbers,” she said, “it is very obvious to me that they’re not putting as much focus as they should be on prevention as opposed to reactionary suppression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul Mason, vice president of policy and incentives with Pacific Forest Trust, a conservation group focused on sustainable forests, said the need for more resource management staffing is “substantial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal Fire needs dozens, if not hundreds, of additional people working on the resource management side of the organization,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that Cal Fire can’t achieve forest sustainability alone, and should build up its workforce alongside other agencies focused on water resources, climate resilience and biodiversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One challenge, according to Morse with the Natural Resources Agency, is that last year’s historic investment in wildfire resilience is mostly one-time spending, meaning the agency cannot count on it in future budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because it’s not permanent funding, it’s hard to get permanent positions,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the money can be spent for up to seven years, Morse said. Some might have to be spent sooner. That would put a time limit on any positions created.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates like Robbins and Mason are pushing for \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificforest.org/wildfire-resiliency-group-budget-letter/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">at least $1 billion in annual\u003c/a> for the next five years — totaling a minimum of $5 billion — for wildfire resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979582\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979582 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A firefighter in a yellow uniform drips flame from a torch onto a pile of brush. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire crews conduct a prescribed burn as part of its vegetation management program in February 2020. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Struggling to track progress\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>An overarching initiative driving the state’s fire prevention efforts is an \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/8.12.20-CA-Shared-Stewardship-MOU.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agreement\u003c/a> Newsom forged with the federal government in the summer of 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the plan, California and the U.S. Forest Service each committed to completing 500,000 acres of forest management work annually in the state by 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after signing the agreement, Newsom held a press conference in Butte County amid ruins of the North Complex Fire. Peering through the smoky air and clad in a vintage-style military jacket, he called the plan “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXga8CM_uuk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a significant milestone, a significant step forward\u003c/a> .”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(In 2018, in an \u003ca href=\"https://www.ca.gov/archive/gov39/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/5.10.18-Forest-EO.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">executive order\u003c/a>, former Gov. Jerry Brown set an annual 500,000-acre goal for California agencies, with a deadline of 2023, but Newsom’s agreement with the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/06/29/gov-gavin-newsom-retreats-on-1-billion-wildfire-prevention-plan-ahead-of-meeting-with-president-biden/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pushed \u003c/a>the target back two years.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Measuring progress toward this goal is murky at best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Newsroom requested data on the number of fire prevention acres Cal Fire itself completed, or funded through grants, in recent years. The department provided a chart showing a steady increase in total acreage, reaching over 105,000 acres in the fiscal year ending in June 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Cal Fire is still figuring out the total number it completed and funded through grants between July 2020 and June 2021. And the department did not provide any data on the current fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To achieve its 500,000-acre goal, the state will count wildfire prevention work performed by Cal Fire, its grantees and private landowners, which can include large properties such as logging companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But currently, Cal Fire does not have a way to track work completed by many private landowners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It highlights something pretty basic, which is we need an accounting system that works,” said Max Moritz, a wildfire specialist with University of California Cooperative Extension.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He notes that tabulating total fire mitigation acres is a limited method of measuring risk reduction. He and other experts advocate for a system that takes into consideration factors like proximity to vulnerable communities and topography. But quantifying total acres of completed work is a basic step toward a more sophisticated assessment system, according to Moritz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is aiming to develop an online dashboard to track progress on forest management and fire prevention work. The goal is to show “the public where these projects are occurring” by putting “all this data at their fingertips,” said Daniel Berlant, deputy director of the department’s newly created Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration has come under \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/06/23/newsom-misled-the-public-about-wildfire-prevention-efforts-ahead-of-worst-fire-season-on-record/\">criticism in the past for overstating the state’s wildfire prevention accomplishments,\u003c/a> first uncovered in an investigation by The California Newsroom last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has teased the new system — an upgrade of its existing, inconsistent \u003ca href=\"https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?url=https%3A%2F%2Fegis.fire.ca.gov%2Farcgis%2Frest%2Fservices%2FCalMapper%2FCalMAPPER_Public%2FMapServer&source=sd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CalMAPPER\u003c/a> database — since last summer. But it hasn’t committed to a release date. At a meeting of the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force last month, director Patrick Wright said it would offer “an initial flavor” of the dashboard in July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An additional challenge stands in the way of measuring progress toward the 1 million acre goal. While the target seems straightforward, Cal Fire and the federal government haven’t arrived at an agreed-upon definition of what counts as an “acre.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are differing perspectives over which types of fuel reduction should be eligible. For example, if an area has to be hand-thinned prior to a prescribed burn, should that area be tallied twice? Is salvage-logging, the process of removing damaged trees after a fire, eligible? What if the federal and state governments work together on the same project — could they both count it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire says it has internal definitions of how to measure and count acres of forest management work. But an agreed-upon definition with the Forest Service remains elusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview, senior Cal Fire officials told The California Newsroom that the governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force is taking the lead on crafting this definition. The task force is made up of representatives from the state and federal governments, tribal leaders and other groups that do forest health projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to make sure that we’re talking apples to apples,” Berlant said. When pressed, he and other senior officials did not provide a timeline for when that definition would be finalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979583\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979583 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a helmet tosses a dead branch down a dry, yellow hill. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire crews cleared brush to create a fuel break in San Diego County. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A ‘messy, confusing process’ to certify ‘burn bosses’ and expand prescribed fire\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire’s prescribed fire guidebook says setting controlled, beneficial fire “is a key tool for the Department and its cooperators to use in reducing fuels at a landscape scale while improving ecosystem health in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the workforce needed to meaningfully scale up prescribed fire, and protect forests and communities, is still largely lacking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Usually “burn bosses” — those qualified to plan and lead controlled burns — need to work for many years for fire suppression agencies, such as Cal Fire or the U.S. Forest Service, to get enough experience for certification. But being so busy fighting fires for much of the year, they struggle to get many burns done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, burns remain a key strategy, and the state’s goal has been to increase the workforce. To that end, the Legislature passed a bill in 2018 meant to increase the number of people trained to run burns. The law created a state-led training and certification program called State-Certified Prescribed-Fire Burn Boss, or CA-RX. It signaled a shift in direction — and a hope that burn bosses who do not work for government agencies in suppression, but may work for nonprofits, will have more freedom to conduct burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, it took four years — until mid-April 2022 — for the first burn boss to be certified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emails obtained through a Public Records Act request make it clear that some Cal Fire unit chiefs, whose signoff was required to advance the certification process, did not fully support the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delays in issuing and signing paperwork prevented the certification of trainees for the better part of a year. For example, course participants were not issued training checklists known as “task books,” which are used to evaluate their abilities. And trainees suggest these delays may have come at a cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am deeply concerned that I have still not been issued a task book to finalize my CARX certification,” wrote trainee Will Harling, director of the Mid Klamath Watershed Council, in an early January 2022 email to Cal Fire’s State Fire Training division. “This sense of urgency is shared by myself and others who have seen first-hand towns nearly wiped off the map in the time we have been waiting for this CARX certification process to be finalized, and have the skills and knowledge to safely implement prescribed burns that can help save homes and protect resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harling wasn’t the only one to write in frustration to the division. In response to a December 2021 email from another trainee, Battalion Chief Mark Bisbee within Cal Fire’s State Fire Training division acknowledged the program’s problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I guess the best way to characterize this entire process is messy, confusing,” Bisbee wrote. “The next step is in flux because […] not all Unit Chiefs are on board.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bisbee acknowledged in his email that the certification program “has been a very long, drawn out process,” but said he would continue to advocate for the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview in April, Bisbee said the slow start was partially due to only a few people being authorized to teach the program, but also to “bottlenecks within the bureaucracy.” While he said he saw progress within the department of accepting prescribed fire — which can be a hard adjustment for those trained only to put out fire — the paradigm shift was like a huge ship moving sideways: slow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also acknowledged the push from lawmakers to take a new direction: “Whether Cal Fire is ready or not, the legislation is saying this is what we need to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a legislative oversight hearing last December, Lenya Quinn-Davidson — a fire adviser with the University of California who helped write the legislation and the curriculum and who hosted the first course — told lawmakers:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve missed a ton of opportunities for project implementation. There is a huge need for qualified burn bosses to plan and implement projects and to partner with the state and to partner with landowners. But without the state certification and the protections that it can provide, many of those folks are not willing to go out and do that work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quinn-Davidson wrote a \u003ca href=\"https://fireadaptednetwork.org/california-burn-boss-program-new-path-forward-or-dead-end-street/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blog post \u003c/a>in mid-January about the delays in the certification process. Soon after it published, Cal Fire issued task books to almost all participants, according to a blog update. Will Harling confirmed receiving his.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to see this work happen more quickly,” Quinn-Davidson told The California Newsroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Reischman, Cal Fire’s deputy director of resource management, said he believes the program will prove a success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a new course for us, so there’s a lot of changes and things that we had to do to get it up and running,” he said. “It’s a process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Missing reports and safety inspections\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In some instances, The California Newsroom discovered, Cal Fire is altogether neglecting oversight requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For over a decade, the Legislature has mandated that the department file an annual report detailing its fire prevention activities for the previous year, and its plans for improving prevention efforts moving forward. The report is an inventory of the department’s accomplishments, and lawmakers rely on it to understand the state’s progress on protecting vulnerable communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But an exhaustive search by the State Library, carried out at The California Newsroom’s request, found that the department has not filed this report in at least four years. The library’s most recent copy covers fiscal year 2014-15. The state’s website for \u003ca href=\"https://agencyreports.ca.gov/rep13922308081004\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agency reports\u003c/a> indicates the department may have filed a report for 2017, but the library does not have a copy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last two state budgets, the Legislature also required Cal Fire to file reports on grants awarded to local governments and nonprofits for fire prevention, including the number of applications received and grants awarded. The reports were due in February of this year, according to the state’s website for agency reports. A search by the State Library turned up no copies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire did not provide copies of the reports in response to an email request. In an interview, Berlant said “the reports are in the works,” adding the department took its responsibilities seriously but had been delayed by the pandemic and that “fighting fire in the middle of December, January, February — that becomes a bit of our priority.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chief Tyler said the department is actively working on completing them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I myself learned about those reports to the Legislature that are due, I put a task in my own calendar to start checking up on those to ensure that those are getting submitted timely,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some legislation lays out clear mandates for Cal Fire, other bills establish goals for the department to meet. For example, a law passed in 2019 set a goal for Cal Fire to inspect homes within its responsibility area once every three years. These inspections are designed to educate homeowners about dangers with vegetation near the home and structural vulnerabilities to wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Cal Fire is struggling to hit its inspection targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4457\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2021 report\u003c/a> from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, “CalFire was not able to provide data on how many unique properties were inspected each year or how many properties had not been inspected within the past three years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, the LAO concluded, “[I]t is unclear what share of properties have received recent inspections.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department provided some information, and indicated some local Cal Fire units inspected 10% or fewer of their parcels each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berlant said the department is working to hit its goals and plans to hire more defensible space inspectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will be working to not only increase those [inspection] numbers, but to make sure that those numbers are being reported to the public to see exactly where that work is being done,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moritz, the wildfire specialist with University of California Cooperative Extension, said the inspections are essential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Clearly if Cal Fire was able to follow through and inspect 100% of the parcels that need it,” said Moritz, “presumably those inspections would lead to a great benefit, a great reduction in risk for both the firefighters and for the homeowners.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire also is supposed to update fire hazard severity maps every five years, but they were last updated in 2007. The agency told CapRadio in December that \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/12/20/after-years-of-delays-calfire-says-updated-and-expanded-wildfire-hazard-maps-are-on-their-way/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the new ones would be released in the next few months\u003c/a> — at that time, ostensibly February or March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent interview, Cal Fire staff now says the new maps likely will roll out in the summer and fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The maps are “a really important tool that we have for smarter building and design of our communities, because the building codes are attached to those maps,” according to Moritz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delaying the map updates, Moritz said, could lead to places still being identified at a lower hazard level than they should be. “You could have building going on that would not be at the building codes that are necessary for the hazard in that location,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s modeling has struggled to keep pace with the conditions feeding California’s extreme wildfires. Berlant says the department is now using science that “tracks extreme wind events at a much smaller scale, so that we can better mirror conditions that we’ve been experiencing in these last couple of fire seasons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Cal Fire’s chief responds\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The California Newsroom presented Chief Tyler with its findings, and he expounded on ways he plans to change the culture and structure of Cal Fire. He also reiterated his belief that Cal Fire can — and under his leadership will — balance its firefighting and forestry responsibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979588\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1979588\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a blue uniform stands at a podium in front of a bulldozer. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler speaks in Santa Rosa for Wildfire Preparedness Week, May 5, 2022. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For example, experts and practitioners in the world of fire resilience have told The California Newsroom they feel an inability to publicly criticize or offer scrutiny of Cal Fire for fear of damaging their relationship with the department, being cut out of grants or not getting their permits signed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tyler acknowledged this fear is a real problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That disappoints me,” he said. “I have heard that in the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his short time as chief, Tyler said he has been working to create an environment that welcomes open communication and collaboration. He said in his first weeks as the head of Cal Fire, he spent about six days a week soliciting input from stakeholders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morse, with the state’s Natural Resources Agency, added that Cal Fire’s participation in the governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force brought the department to the table with representatives from nongovernment organizations, tribes and local governments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he’s open to some changes, Tyler stopped short of advocating for radical overhauls to the department’s structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire uses a top-down organizational structure called the “incident command system.” This organizational model is often used by public agencies to manage emergencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tyler believes this structure is effective for fighting fires — and planning to prevent them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal Fire is a very paramilitary organization,” the chief said. “You can use that system for applying anything to this organization, whether that be fuels reduction, vegetation management, prescribed fire or full suppression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tyler also pushed back on \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2377\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">handing over fire prevention responsibilities\u003c/a> , such as prescribed burns and other mitigation efforts, to a cabinet-level position appointed by the governor — a proposal floated by one lawmaker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do not believe that there is a need to split this department,” Tyler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He emphasized his expectation that, when firefighters “are not actively suppressing fires and going to emergencies, they are doing defensible space inspections, they are doing fuels reduction [and] they are investing in prescribed fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is important that these employees are doing the entire mission of the department,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The California Newsroom is a collaboration of public radio stations, NPR and CalMatters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"An investigation by The California Newsroom found that Cal Fire continues to mishandle key responsibilities related to forest management and wildfire mitigation.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846246,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":135,"wordCount":5414},"headData":{"title":"Cal Fire Fumbles Key Responsibilities to Prevent Catastrophic Wildfires Despite Historic Budget | KQED","description":"An investigation by The California Newsroom found that Cal Fire continues to mishandle key responsibilities related to forest management and wildfire mitigation.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Cal Fire Fumbles Key Responsibilities to Prevent Catastrophic Wildfires Despite Historic Budget","datePublished":"2022-06-21T07:01:37.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:24:06.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"The California Newsroom","sticky":false,"nprByline":"Scott Rodd (CapRadio) and Danielle Venton (KQED)","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","path":"/science/1979560/cal-fire-fumbles-key-responsibilities-to-prevent-catastrophic-wildfires-despite-historic-budget","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Richard A. Wilson is worried about wildfires this summer, amid dry conditions, extreme temperatures, punishing winds and the amplification of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are very vulnerable,” the 90-year-old said while looking out the window of his house on Buck Mountain, part of a 3,000-acre cattle ranch spanning Mendocino and Trinity counties that has been in his family for 80 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilson estimates about 70% of his land — the whole northern end, including grassland, and pine and Douglas fir timberland — has burned in recent years. It was hit by the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire and the 2020 August Complex Fire, both among the largest fires in state history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The scale of the fires covered the country in a way we hadn’t seen, in size or intensity,” Wilson recalled.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘Their business [now] is putting fires out. The bigger the fires, the more people they need to put the fires out. That’s a complete reverse of somebody trying to deal with the forest so if there is a fire, it doesn’t get out of control and burn the whole thing down.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","citation":"Richard Wilson, former head of Cal Fire","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires in California have burned nearly 7 million acres in the last two years alone. It is not only the size of the fires but also the destruction that’s breathtaking. In just the 2021 fire season, the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville and the Caldor Fire devastated the foothills community of Grizzly Flats. Both were the first fires in modern state history to burn across the Sierra Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, Wilson fears, will be dangerous, as well: “We are headed into a tenuous time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilson is not just any worried landowner: He’s the former head of Cal Fire, the state department responsible for fighting wildfires and managing forestland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while Cal Fire is broadly recognized as a leader in firefighting, Wilson says it is also partly to blame for the looming danger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he led the department in the 1990s, he claims it viewed caring for forest health as a primary mission. Foresters are trained to see wooded areas as living ecosystems, and know how to make them more fire-resilient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in the years after his tenure, he says the culture changed. Firefighting, not forestry, became the route to advancement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And it’s now a fire department. A very good fire department. But it’s not a forestry department,” Wilson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Cal Fire is at an inflection point: trying to return to a greater emphasis on fire mitigation and forest health, while still working to protect communities from historic and deadly wildfires. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature lavished the department with record amounts of money for prescribed burns, brush clearing and cutting fuel breaks. But money alone does not solve the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire has publicly signaled a commitment to rebalancing its priorities. But a monthslong investigation by The California Newsroom, a public media collaboration, found that the department continues to fumble key responsibilities related to forest management and wildfire mitigation, potentially leaving the state at greater risk of catastrophic fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigation found:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The state set aside a record $1.5 billion for wildfire prevention and forest health in 2021. However, Cal Fire’s forest management hiring remains stagnant, while its firefighting staffing has ballooned.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cal Fire is struggling to track wildfire prevention projects that experts say are desperately needed to protect communities from destructive wildfires. The department still can’t determine how many acres of work it completed and funded through grants in the fiscal year ending in June 2021.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cal Fire has taken years to implement laws passed by the state Legislature. A program, required under state law to bolster the prescribed-burn workforce, suffered nearly a year of delay. So far, only two burn bosses have been certified, slowing the pace of protective projects. Experts say this delay has caused a loss of opportunities to enact community-protecting work.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>For at least four years, Cal Fire has failed to send its annual report to the Legislature detailing the department’s fire prevention efforts. The report, required by law, is an inventory of Cal Fire’s efforts and helps lawmakers understand the state’s progress on protecting vulnerable communities.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire has increased its output during the past five years. It completed fire prevention work — directly or through grants — on 105,000 acres in the fiscal year that ended in June 2020. The department could not provide a more current total.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/8.12.20-CA-Shared-Stewardship-MOU.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tasked\u003c/a> Cal Fire, along with partners that control state and private land, with performing 500,000 acres of forest management and fire mitigation work every year by 2025. But progress toward that goal has been slow, in part because a key state program \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2022/04/12/newsom-hailed-this-critical-wildfire-prevention-program-two-years-on-it-hasnt-completed-a-single-project/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">failed to increase project completions\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘Watching these fires get larger and more damaging since 2014, I sincerely recognize the need to change the way we do — and have changed the way that we do — business.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","citation":"Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview, Cal Fire’s Joe Tyler, who was appointed chief in March, said the department is making progress on improving forest health and protecting communities in advance of catastrophic fires by “investing in community preparedness and mitigation” and “continuing to do those fuels projects across the board.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He points to this year’s creation of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/p24fmjyg/cwpm-news-release_2022.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation division\u003c/a>, which aims to “develop, prioritize and implement strategies and projects that create fire adapted communities and landscapes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Tyler said the longer, more extreme wildfire seasons — coupled with the pandemic — have left the department’s workforce “fatigued.” That has affected Cal Fire’s administrative, forest management and fire suppression capabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tyler also acknowledged the need to change Cal Fire’s culture so it focuses more on prevention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Watching these fires get larger and more damaging since 2014, I sincerely recognize the need to change the way we do — and have changed the way that we do — business,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire practitioners like Margo Robbins, executive director of the Cultural Fire Management Council, argue this change at Cal Fire is long overdue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that they have forgotten that forestry is part of their responsibility, quite frankly,” said Robbins, whose expertise is in setting intentional fires that benefit the landscape and can protect communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She noted that Cal Fire is “moving in the right direction” by boosting investment in fire mitigation and fuel reduction. And the department has helped accommodate cultural prescribed burning led by Native American communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But “they have a ways to go,” Robbins added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they would focus more on that management piece, I think we would be seeing a very different scenario on our landscapes and a very different scenario in terms of wildfires,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Rebranding the department, changing the culture\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979580\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1979580\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Firefighters in orange and yellow uniforms stand in front of a burning hillside.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut-800x604.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut-1020x770.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut-768x580.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56650_GettyImages-567393319-qut-1536x1160.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters from the State of California and the Orange County Fire Authority on a controlled burn in Crystal Cove State Park, June 27, 1998. \u003ccite>(Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back when Wilson ran Cal Fire in the 1990s, it was known by its official name: the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. He says during those years he made sure foresters — who are trained in managing forest health — had a lot of say. He feels their voice has disappeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/jwpajqnx/foresters-and-directors.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">photo lineup of Cal Fire’s past executive roster\u003c/a> , Wilson is the last chief wearing a suit and tie. All subsequent chiefs are wearing uniforms with badges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their business [now] is putting fires out,” Wilson said. “The bigger the fires, the more people they need to put the fires out. That’s a complete reverse of somebody trying to deal with the forest so if there is a fire, it doesn’t get out of control and burn the whole thing down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new chief, Tyler, is a 30-year veteran of the department who previously oversaw aspects of Cal Fire’s firefighting and emergency response. He said he witnessed the culture change, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I recall far ago in my career, in the ’90s, where fuels treatment, fuels reduction, vegetation management was an extremely high priority of the department,” Tyler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979575\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1979575\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-800x642.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"642\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-800x642.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-1020x818.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-160x128.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-768x616.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM-1536x1232.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-12.49.08-PM.png 1588w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photoline up of Cal Fire’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/jwpajqnx/foresters-and-directors.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">executive roster\u003c/a> from 1990 to the present. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But then, with the onset of larger and more damaging fires, the department’s focus increasingly shifted to suppression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The name “Cal Fire” embodies this tension. In 2006, the Legislature passed a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=200520060AB1423\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">law\u003c/a> allowing The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to rebrand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of the bill — including the department’s firefighters union — argued the change was “\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22015888-ab-1423-assembly-bill-bill-analysis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">necessary to reflect [the department’s] primary role as a fire-fighting agency.\u003c/a> ” But the department itself had opposed the legislation, worried that the new moniker would obscure its forest management mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These tensions are once again at the fore as California faces a new wildfire reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Record investment, few new fire-prevention hires\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Last year, Newsom and lawmakers allocated a record $1.5 billion for wildfire prevention and forest management, with the bulk of it going to Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a record amount. As of April, about half of the $1.5 billion had been “committed” to specific projects and initiatives, \u003ca href=\"https://resources.ca.gov/-/media/CNRA-Website/Files/Initiatives/Forest-Stewardship/Wildfire-Resilience-Program/2022-04-29-Wildfire-Resilience-Budget-Report.pdf\">according\u003c/a> to a recent report from the Natural Resources Agency, which oversees Cal Fire. The state has up to seven years to spend the bulk of the investment; some money may have to be spent sooner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency says the committed money is going to good use. “We’ve launched over 550 new projects with that funding,” said Jessica Morse, deputy secretary for forest and wildland resilience with the Natural Resources Agency. “Which is pretty fast — for bureaucracy, from appropriation — within less than a year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of these projects are specific wildfire prevention and forest health efforts, according to a chart on the agency’s \u003ca href=\"https://resources.ca.gov/Initiatives/Forest-Stewardship/Wildfire-Resilience-Program?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">website\u003c/a>. For example, the Tuolumne County Resource Conservation District is planning a 641-acre fuel break to protect the communities of Groveland and Big Oak Flat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of projects don’t turn dirt or remove dangerous brush. Some fund studies of mitigation techniques and vegetation types. Another pays a consulting firm half-a-million dollars to develop a communications strategy for the governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of other projects are related to climate change resilience, but have no immediate connection to wildfires. For example, a $600,000 allocation will help the city of Glendale, in Los Angeles County, plant 500 trees within the most “tree-poor area of the City.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of that money would go to distributing pamphlets to urban property owners on “the benefits of trees and tree care,” the project description reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979578\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979578 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM-800x541.png\" alt=\"Chart showing rising costs of responding to wildfires.\" width=\"800\" height=\"541\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM-800x541.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM-1020x690.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM-160x108.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM-768x520.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/Screen-Shot-2022-06-20-at-1.14.20-PM.png 1076w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State spending on firefighting has more than tripled since 2005, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4457\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Legislative Analyst’s Office\u003c/a>. Despite recent increases, spending on resource management and fire prevention is still a small fraction of the total. \u003ccite>(LAO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In spite of last year’s investment, the bulk of Cal Fire’s overall spending remains focused on fire suppression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last three fiscal years, Cal Fire allocated nearly $8 billion for “fire protection,” according to figures provided by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, or LAO. That money is used “to attack fires quickly and aggressively … until the fire is under control,” according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebudget.ca.gov/2022-23/pdf/GovernorsBudget/3000/3540.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the department’s budget\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During those three years, the department allocated about $1.5 billion for “resource management,” which according to the department’s budget is for the “regulation of timber harvesting,” “coordination of climate and forest restoration” and “vegetation management projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staffing and new hires also heavily favor fire suppression. In the last three years, “fire protection” positions jumped from 7,076 to 8,187, according to figures provided by the state Department of Finance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(In an interview, senior Cal Fire officials noted that some positions in the department’s “fire protection” division focus on fire prevention work. About 3% of the division’s staff are described as “fire prevention” positions, according to Department of Finance figures.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During that same time period, Cal Fire’s “resource management” division increased by 31 positions to a total of 518 — despite the massive investment in forest health and wildfire mitigation last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Note: Every department’s budget includes staffing figures, but the Department of Finance cautioned that some of the numbers for Cal Fire in recent years needed to be updated. The Department of Finance provided updated, accurate figures in response to a request from The California Newsroom.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts acknowledge the need to ramp up fire suppression forces in the face of extreme wildfires. But they argue there needs to be a complementary increase in resource management hiring to prevent catastrophic wildfires in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robbins, with the Cultural Fire Management Council, called the hiring disparity “startling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Looking at these numbers,” she said, “it is very obvious to me that they’re not putting as much focus as they should be on prevention as opposed to reactionary suppression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul Mason, vice president of policy and incentives with Pacific Forest Trust, a conservation group focused on sustainable forests, said the need for more resource management staffing is “substantial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal Fire needs dozens, if not hundreds, of additional people working on the resource management side of the organization,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that Cal Fire can’t achieve forest sustainability alone, and should build up its workforce alongside other agencies focused on water resources, climate resilience and biodiversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One challenge, according to Morse with the Natural Resources Agency, is that last year’s historic investment in wildfire resilience is mostly one-time spending, meaning the agency cannot count on it in future budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because it’s not permanent funding, it’s hard to get permanent positions,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the money can be spent for up to seven years, Morse said. Some might have to be spent sooner. That would put a time limit on any positions created.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates like Robbins and Mason are pushing for \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificforest.org/wildfire-resiliency-group-budget-letter/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">at least $1 billion in annual\u003c/a> for the next five years — totaling a minimum of $5 billion — for wildfire resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979582\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979582 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A firefighter in a yellow uniform drips flame from a torch onto a pile of brush. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56652_51207660423_ab9176b089_o-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire crews conduct a prescribed burn as part of its vegetation management program in February 2020. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Struggling to track progress\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>An overarching initiative driving the state’s fire prevention efforts is an \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/8.12.20-CA-Shared-Stewardship-MOU.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agreement\u003c/a> Newsom forged with the federal government in the summer of 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the plan, California and the U.S. Forest Service each committed to completing 500,000 acres of forest management work annually in the state by 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after signing the agreement, Newsom held a press conference in Butte County amid ruins of the North Complex Fire. Peering through the smoky air and clad in a vintage-style military jacket, he called the plan “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXga8CM_uuk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a significant milestone, a significant step forward\u003c/a> .”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(In 2018, in an \u003ca href=\"https://www.ca.gov/archive/gov39/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/5.10.18-Forest-EO.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">executive order\u003c/a>, former Gov. Jerry Brown set an annual 500,000-acre goal for California agencies, with a deadline of 2023, but Newsom’s agreement with the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/06/29/gov-gavin-newsom-retreats-on-1-billion-wildfire-prevention-plan-ahead-of-meeting-with-president-biden/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pushed \u003c/a>the target back two years.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Measuring progress toward this goal is murky at best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Newsroom requested data on the number of fire prevention acres Cal Fire itself completed, or funded through grants, in recent years. The department provided a chart showing a steady increase in total acreage, reaching over 105,000 acres in the fiscal year ending in June 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Cal Fire is still figuring out the total number it completed and funded through grants between July 2020 and June 2021. And the department did not provide any data on the current fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To achieve its 500,000-acre goal, the state will count wildfire prevention work performed by Cal Fire, its grantees and private landowners, which can include large properties such as logging companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But currently, Cal Fire does not have a way to track work completed by many private landowners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It highlights something pretty basic, which is we need an accounting system that works,” said Max Moritz, a wildfire specialist with University of California Cooperative Extension.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He notes that tabulating total fire mitigation acres is a limited method of measuring risk reduction. He and other experts advocate for a system that takes into consideration factors like proximity to vulnerable communities and topography. But quantifying total acres of completed work is a basic step toward a more sophisticated assessment system, according to Moritz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is aiming to develop an online dashboard to track progress on forest management and fire prevention work. The goal is to show “the public where these projects are occurring” by putting “all this data at their fingertips,” said Daniel Berlant, deputy director of the department’s newly created Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration has come under \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/06/23/newsom-misled-the-public-about-wildfire-prevention-efforts-ahead-of-worst-fire-season-on-record/\">criticism in the past for overstating the state’s wildfire prevention accomplishments,\u003c/a> first uncovered in an investigation by The California Newsroom last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has teased the new system — an upgrade of its existing, inconsistent \u003ca href=\"https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?url=https%3A%2F%2Fegis.fire.ca.gov%2Farcgis%2Frest%2Fservices%2FCalMapper%2FCalMAPPER_Public%2FMapServer&source=sd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CalMAPPER\u003c/a> database — since last summer. But it hasn’t committed to a release date. At a meeting of the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force last month, director Patrick Wright said it would offer “an initial flavor” of the dashboard in July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An additional challenge stands in the way of measuring progress toward the 1 million acre goal. While the target seems straightforward, Cal Fire and the federal government haven’t arrived at an agreed-upon definition of what counts as an “acre.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are differing perspectives over which types of fuel reduction should be eligible. For example, if an area has to be hand-thinned prior to a prescribed burn, should that area be tallied twice? Is salvage-logging, the process of removing damaged trees after a fire, eligible? What if the federal and state governments work together on the same project — could they both count it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire says it has internal definitions of how to measure and count acres of forest management work. But an agreed-upon definition with the Forest Service remains elusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview, senior Cal Fire officials told The California Newsroom that the governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force is taking the lead on crafting this definition. The task force is made up of representatives from the state and federal governments, tribal leaders and other groups that do forest health projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to make sure that we’re talking apples to apples,” Berlant said. When pressed, he and other senior officials did not provide a timeline for when that definition would be finalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979583\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1979583 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a helmet tosses a dead branch down a dry, yellow hill. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56653_51342881697_e3f59cf6dd_o-1-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire crews cleared brush to create a fuel break in San Diego County. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A ‘messy, confusing process’ to certify ‘burn bosses’ and expand prescribed fire\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire’s prescribed fire guidebook says setting controlled, beneficial fire “is a key tool for the Department and its cooperators to use in reducing fuels at a landscape scale while improving ecosystem health in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the workforce needed to meaningfully scale up prescribed fire, and protect forests and communities, is still largely lacking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Usually “burn bosses” — those qualified to plan and lead controlled burns — need to work for many years for fire suppression agencies, such as Cal Fire or the U.S. Forest Service, to get enough experience for certification. But being so busy fighting fires for much of the year, they struggle to get many burns done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, burns remain a key strategy, and the state’s goal has been to increase the workforce. To that end, the Legislature passed a bill in 2018 meant to increase the number of people trained to run burns. The law created a state-led training and certification program called State-Certified Prescribed-Fire Burn Boss, or CA-RX. It signaled a shift in direction — and a hope that burn bosses who do not work for government agencies in suppression, but may work for nonprofits, will have more freedom to conduct burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, it took four years — until mid-April 2022 — for the first burn boss to be certified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emails obtained through a Public Records Act request make it clear that some Cal Fire unit chiefs, whose signoff was required to advance the certification process, did not fully support the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delays in issuing and signing paperwork prevented the certification of trainees for the better part of a year. For example, course participants were not issued training checklists known as “task books,” which are used to evaluate their abilities. And trainees suggest these delays may have come at a cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am deeply concerned that I have still not been issued a task book to finalize my CARX certification,” wrote trainee Will Harling, director of the Mid Klamath Watershed Council, in an early January 2022 email to Cal Fire’s State Fire Training division. “This sense of urgency is shared by myself and others who have seen first-hand towns nearly wiped off the map in the time we have been waiting for this CARX certification process to be finalized, and have the skills and knowledge to safely implement prescribed burns that can help save homes and protect resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harling wasn’t the only one to write in frustration to the division. In response to a December 2021 email from another trainee, Battalion Chief Mark Bisbee within Cal Fire’s State Fire Training division acknowledged the program’s problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I guess the best way to characterize this entire process is messy, confusing,” Bisbee wrote. “The next step is in flux because […] not all Unit Chiefs are on board.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bisbee acknowledged in his email that the certification program “has been a very long, drawn out process,” but said he would continue to advocate for the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview in April, Bisbee said the slow start was partially due to only a few people being authorized to teach the program, but also to “bottlenecks within the bureaucracy.” While he said he saw progress within the department of accepting prescribed fire — which can be a hard adjustment for those trained only to put out fire — the paradigm shift was like a huge ship moving sideways: slow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also acknowledged the push from lawmakers to take a new direction: “Whether Cal Fire is ready or not, the legislation is saying this is what we need to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a legislative oversight hearing last December, Lenya Quinn-Davidson — a fire adviser with the University of California who helped write the legislation and the curriculum and who hosted the first course — told lawmakers:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve missed a ton of opportunities for project implementation. There is a huge need for qualified burn bosses to plan and implement projects and to partner with the state and to partner with landowners. But without the state certification and the protections that it can provide, many of those folks are not willing to go out and do that work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quinn-Davidson wrote a \u003ca href=\"https://fireadaptednetwork.org/california-burn-boss-program-new-path-forward-or-dead-end-street/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blog post \u003c/a>in mid-January about the delays in the certification process. Soon after it published, Cal Fire issued task books to almost all participants, according to a blog update. Will Harling confirmed receiving his.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to see this work happen more quickly,” Quinn-Davidson told The California Newsroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Reischman, Cal Fire’s deputy director of resource management, said he believes the program will prove a success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a new course for us, so there’s a lot of changes and things that we had to do to get it up and running,” he said. “It’s a process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Missing reports and safety inspections\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In some instances, The California Newsroom discovered, Cal Fire is altogether neglecting oversight requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For over a decade, the Legislature has mandated that the department file an annual report detailing its fire prevention activities for the previous year, and its plans for improving prevention efforts moving forward. The report is an inventory of the department’s accomplishments, and lawmakers rely on it to understand the state’s progress on protecting vulnerable communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But an exhaustive search by the State Library, carried out at The California Newsroom’s request, found that the department has not filed this report in at least four years. The library’s most recent copy covers fiscal year 2014-15. The state’s website for \u003ca href=\"https://agencyreports.ca.gov/rep13922308081004\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agency reports\u003c/a> indicates the department may have filed a report for 2017, but the library does not have a copy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last two state budgets, the Legislature also required Cal Fire to file reports on grants awarded to local governments and nonprofits for fire prevention, including the number of applications received and grants awarded. The reports were due in February of this year, according to the state’s website for agency reports. A search by the State Library turned up no copies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire did not provide copies of the reports in response to an email request. In an interview, Berlant said “the reports are in the works,” adding the department took its responsibilities seriously but had been delayed by the pandemic and that “fighting fire in the middle of December, January, February — that becomes a bit of our priority.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chief Tyler said the department is actively working on completing them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I myself learned about those reports to the Legislature that are due, I put a task in my own calendar to start checking up on those to ensure that those are getting submitted timely,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some legislation lays out clear mandates for Cal Fire, other bills establish goals for the department to meet. For example, a law passed in 2019 set a goal for Cal Fire to inspect homes within its responsibility area once every three years. These inspections are designed to educate homeowners about dangers with vegetation near the home and structural vulnerabilities to wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Cal Fire is struggling to hit its inspection targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4457\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2021 report\u003c/a> from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, “CalFire was not able to provide data on how many unique properties were inspected each year or how many properties had not been inspected within the past three years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, the LAO concluded, “[I]t is unclear what share of properties have received recent inspections.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department provided some information, and indicated some local Cal Fire units inspected 10% or fewer of their parcels each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berlant said the department is working to hit its goals and plans to hire more defensible space inspectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will be working to not only increase those [inspection] numbers, but to make sure that those numbers are being reported to the public to see exactly where that work is being done,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moritz, the wildfire specialist with University of California Cooperative Extension, said the inspections are essential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Clearly if Cal Fire was able to follow through and inspect 100% of the parcels that need it,” said Moritz, “presumably those inspections would lead to a great benefit, a great reduction in risk for both the firefighters and for the homeowners.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire also is supposed to update fire hazard severity maps every five years, but they were last updated in 2007. The agency told CapRadio in December that \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/12/20/after-years-of-delays-calfire-says-updated-and-expanded-wildfire-hazard-maps-are-on-their-way/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the new ones would be released in the next few months\u003c/a> — at that time, ostensibly February or March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent interview, Cal Fire staff now says the new maps likely will roll out in the summer and fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The maps are “a really important tool that we have for smarter building and design of our communities, because the building codes are attached to those maps,” according to Moritz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delaying the map updates, Moritz said, could lead to places still being identified at a lower hazard level than they should be. “You could have building going on that would not be at the building codes that are necessary for the hazard in that location,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s modeling has struggled to keep pace with the conditions feeding California’s extreme wildfires. Berlant says the department is now using science that “tracks extreme wind events at a much smaller scale, so that we can better mirror conditions that we’ve been experiencing in these last couple of fire seasons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Cal Fire’s chief responds\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The California Newsroom presented Chief Tyler with its findings, and he expounded on ways he plans to change the culture and structure of Cal Fire. He also reiterated his belief that Cal Fire can — and under his leadership will — balance its firefighting and forestry responsibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1979588\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1979588\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a blue uniform stands at a podium in front of a bulldozer. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/06/RS56654_52052067027_34755aed5d_o-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler speaks in Santa Rosa for Wildfire Preparedness Week, May 5, 2022. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For example, experts and practitioners in the world of fire resilience have told The California Newsroom they feel an inability to publicly criticize or offer scrutiny of Cal Fire for fear of damaging their relationship with the department, being cut out of grants or not getting their permits signed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tyler acknowledged this fear is a real problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That disappoints me,” he said. “I have heard that in the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his short time as chief, Tyler said he has been working to create an environment that welcomes open communication and collaboration. He said in his first weeks as the head of Cal Fire, he spent about six days a week soliciting input from stakeholders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morse, with the state’s Natural Resources Agency, added that Cal Fire’s participation in the governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force brought the department to the table with representatives from nongovernment organizations, tribes and local governments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he’s open to some changes, Tyler stopped short of advocating for radical overhauls to the department’s structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire uses a top-down organizational structure called the “incident command system.” This organizational model is often used by public agencies to manage emergencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tyler believes this structure is effective for fighting fires — and planning to prevent them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal Fire is a very paramilitary organization,” the chief said. “You can use that system for applying anything to this organization, whether that be fuels reduction, vegetation management, prescribed fire or full suppression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tyler also pushed back on \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2377\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">handing over fire prevention responsibilities\u003c/a> , such as prescribed burns and other mitigation efforts, to a cabinet-level position appointed by the governor — a proposal floated by one lawmaker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do not believe that there is a need to split this department,” Tyler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He emphasized his expectation that, when firefighters “are not actively suppressing fires and going to emergencies, they are doing defensible space inspections, they are doing fuels reduction [and] they are investing in prescribed fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is important that these employees are doing the entire mission of the department,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The California Newsroom is a collaboration of public radio stations, NPR and CalMatters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1979560/cal-fire-fumbles-key-responsibilities-to-prevent-catastrophic-wildfires-despite-historic-budget","authors":["byline_science_1979560"],"categories":["science_35","science_40","science_4450","science_3730"],"tags":["science_5194","science_4877","science_194","science_4414","science_4008","science_113"],"featImg":"science_1979564","label":"source_science_1979560"},"science_1948013":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1948013","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1948013","score":null,"sort":[1569481282000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"california-lawmakers-plans-to-protect-homes-from-wildfire-fall-short","title":"These Big Plans to Protect California Homes From Wildfire Fell Short in the Legislature","publishDate":1569481282,"format":"standard","headTitle":"These Big Plans to Protect California Homes From Wildfire Fell Short in the Legislature | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>After 86 people in the town of Paradise lost their lives in a massive wildfire last year, California lawmakers vowed to prepare the state for future infernos. But while millions of dollars are going toward new firefighting crews and technology, some say the state is overlooking an area in dire need of help: making homes and buildings safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align='right' citation='State Sen. Bob Wieckowski']‘I’m concerned that a lot of localities are going to be making a lot of bad decisions because we haven’t rung the bell that you can’t do this any longer.’[/pullquote]Several bills in the state Legislature were drafted to help millions of homeowners in high fire-risk areas retrofit their homes with fire-resistant materials. This was considered critical because most of these homes were built before California enacted its modern wildfire building codes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other bills required stepped-up inspections of fire-prone vegetation around structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But due to a lack of funding in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s state budget, the bills were scaled back. They now await Newsom’s signature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another bill, SB 182, would have directed cities and counties to limit how much housing is built in very high fire-hazard zones absent adequate firefighting capacity, evacuation routes and defensible space enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Due to concerns it could reduce the state’s housing stock, the bill failed to pass by the time legislators adjourned in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many fire experts have warned that California must make existing communities safer, if it’s going to tackle wildfire risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I personally believe that spending money upfront to prevent wildfires is a better use of funds than having to spend a lot more money later on to deal with a tragedy,” said Assemblymember Laura Friedman, who authored one of the bills, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1516\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 1516\u003c/a>, now on Newsom’s desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Awaiting Newsom’s Signature: Improving Defensible Space, But No Cal-Fire Inspection Requirement\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many houses destroyed in wildfires aren’t consumed by advancing flames; they’re ignited by embers that are blown ahead of the fire and land on brush, trees or grasses next to a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State law requires homeowners in fire zones to minimize and clear vegetation to create “defensible space” within 100 feet of their home. In fire zones outside city limits, Cal Fire inspects homes and can issue citations for homeowners who don’t comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Cal Fire has a goal of inspecting 33 percent of structures in its jurisdiction each year, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1943058/whos-checking-homes-for-flammable-brush-in-some-high-risk-areas-maybe-no-one\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KQED investigation \u003c/a>found the agency only did half that in 2018. In some parts of the state, only 6 percent of homes in risky areas were inspected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s become really clear that our defensible space has been insufficient to protect homes from embers,” said Yana Valachovic, a fire expert with UC Cooperative Extension. “What’s immediately adjacent to a structure affects the probability of a structure’s survival.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first draft of AB 1516 would have required Cal Fire to reach its 33 percent inspection goal. That would have meant hiring dozens of additional inspectors, potentially costing millions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But without support from Gov. Newsom to fund the bill, its supporters struck a compromise. Local groups, like fire safe councils, the California Conservation Corps and those affiliated with Native American tribes, would be empowered to make defensible space assessments of communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those groups could look at vegetation around homes but would not have the same authorization as Cal Fire to write citations requiring homeowners to reduce it. The groups would instead send that information to Cal Fire to inform its inspection program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe that this will get Cal Fire to its 33 percent inspection goal,” said Assemblymember Friedman. “I would like to see 100 percent, which will mean more funding, but I do think that using these trained third parties is a really good, cost-effective way to get statewide inspections.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Newsom signs the bill, it will also create new defensible space requirements within 5 feet of homes and buildings in high-risk fire zones. Cal Fire would develop the guidelines for these “ember-resistant” areas, potentially limiting the kinds of vegetation and mulch that can touch a building, something fire experts strongly recommend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The science has been clear for quite a while, but it’s been slow to incorporate into codes, standards and practices,” said Valachovic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Awaiting Newsom’s Signature: Home Retrofitting Fund Created … With No Money\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wind-driven fire embers can also ignite a home by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1917346/wildfires-can-attack-your-house-from-the-inside-heres-how-to-prevent-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">landing on its wood roof or even entering an attic vent\u003c/a>. Some communities, like Big Bear, have provided residents with grants to replace wood roofs with those that are fire-resistant. Fire experts say even more affordable retrofits, like covering attic vents with mesh, can also make a difference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To help homeowners across the state, Assemblymember Jim Wood introduced \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 38\u003c/a>, a bill that would create a $1 billion fund for no- or low-interest loans for home retrofits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when it became clear the funding wasn’t prioritized in the state budget, the bill was amended. The retrofitting program would be created, but the actual funding would have to be found at a later date, potentially relying on federal hazard funds from FEMA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year we made some very good steps in the right direction to help protect homes and communities,” said Wood. “But we still have a massive hill to climb and we need to climb it much faster to make sure communities are as safe as they can be as soon as they can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Housing vs. Wildfire Protection: Restrictions on New Construction Stalls\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers also took up one of the biggest debates around wildfire: balancing the state’s desperate need for new housing with the need to keep housing out of fire zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imposing development restrictions has been a third-rail of fire policy. When asked about it in April, Newsom responded that he wouldn’t advocate for a ban on building in high-risk areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve never seen a deep analysis,” Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.apnews.com/b17b5c9200a64466b49f3f605f9202fe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told the Associated Press\u003c/a>. “And I think one has to be cautious about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This session, State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB182\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 182\u003c/a>, a bill that sought to dissuade local governments from building in very high fire hazard zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill required areas in which multiunit developments are approved to have a funded defensible space enforcement program, adequate emergency response capacity, and low-risk areas where residents can shelter from fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do have to build, but on the other hand, we don’t want to see another Paradise,” said Jackson. “This bill is designed to work with those competing interests and is designed to meet the needs of both.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the bill got tangled up in another controversial California issue: local requirements to build housing, set to help address the state’s housing crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Jackson’s bill specified that the wildfire building restrictions couldn’t be used to excuse an overall region from its housing requirement, some lawmakers thought it didn’t go far enough to protect housing mandates in individual cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way the bill is structured right now, it would let cities like Berkeley and some other cities off the hook and reduce their housing obligations when they have plenty of non-wildfire areas to build,” said State Sen. Scott Wiener, chair of the Senate Housing Committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Wiener agrees with the bill’s provision that regions should consider their fire risk when determining how much housing should be built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cities where most of the land or all of the land is in a high wildfire risk area?” he said. “We should not be building there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill failed to pass at the end of the legislative session in September, as lawmakers struggled to hammer out a compromise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we enter another fire season, I’m concerned that a lot of localities are going to be making a lot of bad decisions because we haven’t rung the bell that you can’t do this any longer,” State Sen. Bob Wieckowski said, when it became clear the bill wouldn’t proceed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener says he’s confident the bill can be passed in early 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The delay is going to be a very short delay,” he said. “Taking a little bit of extra time to make sure we get it right is not going to harm anyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Where State Funding Is Going: Emergency Response\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As soon as he took office, Newsom announced that tackling California’s wildfire readiness would be a priority for his administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If anyone is wondering if climate change is real, come to California,” he said in April. “We are in a very precarious state, literally and figuratively. It requires us to adapt. It requires us to be nimble. It requires us to meet the moment and meet the challenge. “\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is spending more than $900 million this year preparing for fires. More than $240 million is being directed at new firefighting crews, purchasing new aircraft and acquiring new technology. Large-scale forest management and vegetation-reduction projects received $225 million. Other funds are directed at improving emergency warning systems and 911 services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Improving existing homes and buildings gets little mention in the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/2019-20/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/EmergencyPreparednessResponseandRecovery.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">budget document\u003c/a>, only receiving a one-time $5 million infusion for defensible space programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While fire experts say improving emergency response is critical, shoring up existing communities will be as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no single solution that’s going to solve the fire problem,” said Valachovic. “It takes an all-hands-on-deck approach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"State lawmakers wanted to spend millions preparing homes for wildfires, but the funding never came through.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704848289,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":49,"wordCount":1676},"headData":{"title":"These Big Plans to Protect California Homes From Wildfire Fell Short in the Legislature | KQED","description":"State lawmakers wanted to spend millions preparing homes for wildfires, but the funding never came through.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"These Big Plans to Protect California Homes From Wildfire Fell Short in the Legislature","datePublished":"2019-09-26T07:01:22.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:58:09.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Wildfires","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1948013/california-lawmakers-plans-to-protect-homes-from-wildfire-fall-short","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After 86 people in the town of Paradise lost their lives in a massive wildfire last year, California lawmakers vowed to prepare the state for future infernos. But while millions of dollars are going toward new firefighting crews and technology, some say the state is overlooking an area in dire need of help: making homes and buildings safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I’m concerned that a lot of localities are going to be making a lot of bad decisions because we haven’t rung the bell that you can’t do this any longer.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","citation":"State Sen. Bob Wieckowski","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Several bills in the state Legislature were drafted to help millions of homeowners in high fire-risk areas retrofit their homes with fire-resistant materials. This was considered critical because most of these homes were built before California enacted its modern wildfire building codes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other bills required stepped-up inspections of fire-prone vegetation around structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But due to a lack of funding in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s state budget, the bills were scaled back. They now await Newsom’s signature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another bill, SB 182, would have directed cities and counties to limit how much housing is built in very high fire-hazard zones absent adequate firefighting capacity, evacuation routes and defensible space enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Due to concerns it could reduce the state’s housing stock, the bill failed to pass by the time legislators adjourned in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many fire experts have warned that California must make existing communities safer, if it’s going to tackle wildfire risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I personally believe that spending money upfront to prevent wildfires is a better use of funds than having to spend a lot more money later on to deal with a tragedy,” said Assemblymember Laura Friedman, who authored one of the bills, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1516\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 1516\u003c/a>, now on Newsom’s desk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Awaiting Newsom’s Signature: Improving Defensible Space, But No Cal-Fire Inspection Requirement\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many houses destroyed in wildfires aren’t consumed by advancing flames; they’re ignited by embers that are blown ahead of the fire and land on brush, trees or grasses next to a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State law requires homeowners in fire zones to minimize and clear vegetation to create “defensible space” within 100 feet of their home. In fire zones outside city limits, Cal Fire inspects homes and can issue citations for homeowners who don’t comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Cal Fire has a goal of inspecting 33 percent of structures in its jurisdiction each year, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1943058/whos-checking-homes-for-flammable-brush-in-some-high-risk-areas-maybe-no-one\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KQED investigation \u003c/a>found the agency only did half that in 2018. In some parts of the state, only 6 percent of homes in risky areas were inspected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s become really clear that our defensible space has been insufficient to protect homes from embers,” said Yana Valachovic, a fire expert with UC Cooperative Extension. “What’s immediately adjacent to a structure affects the probability of a structure’s survival.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first draft of AB 1516 would have required Cal Fire to reach its 33 percent inspection goal. That would have meant hiring dozens of additional inspectors, potentially costing millions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But without support from Gov. Newsom to fund the bill, its supporters struck a compromise. Local groups, like fire safe councils, the California Conservation Corps and those affiliated with Native American tribes, would be empowered to make defensible space assessments of communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those groups could look at vegetation around homes but would not have the same authorization as Cal Fire to write citations requiring homeowners to reduce it. The groups would instead send that information to Cal Fire to inform its inspection program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe that this will get Cal Fire to its 33 percent inspection goal,” said Assemblymember Friedman. “I would like to see 100 percent, which will mean more funding, but I do think that using these trained third parties is a really good, cost-effective way to get statewide inspections.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Newsom signs the bill, it will also create new defensible space requirements within 5 feet of homes and buildings in high-risk fire zones. Cal Fire would develop the guidelines for these “ember-resistant” areas, potentially limiting the kinds of vegetation and mulch that can touch a building, something fire experts strongly recommend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The science has been clear for quite a while, but it’s been slow to incorporate into codes, standards and practices,” said Valachovic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Awaiting Newsom’s Signature: Home Retrofitting Fund Created … With No Money\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wind-driven fire embers can also ignite a home by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1917346/wildfires-can-attack-your-house-from-the-inside-heres-how-to-prevent-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">landing on its wood roof or even entering an attic vent\u003c/a>. Some communities, like Big Bear, have provided residents with grants to replace wood roofs with those that are fire-resistant. Fire experts say even more affordable retrofits, like covering attic vents with mesh, can also make a difference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To help homeowners across the state, Assemblymember Jim Wood introduced \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB 38\u003c/a>, a bill that would create a $1 billion fund for no- or low-interest loans for home retrofits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when it became clear the funding wasn’t prioritized in the state budget, the bill was amended. The retrofitting program would be created, but the actual funding would have to be found at a later date, potentially relying on federal hazard funds from FEMA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year we made some very good steps in the right direction to help protect homes and communities,” said Wood. “But we still have a massive hill to climb and we need to climb it much faster to make sure communities are as safe as they can be as soon as they can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Housing vs. Wildfire Protection: Restrictions on New Construction Stalls\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers also took up one of the biggest debates around wildfire: balancing the state’s desperate need for new housing with the need to keep housing out of fire zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imposing development restrictions has been a third-rail of fire policy. When asked about it in April, Newsom responded that he wouldn’t advocate for a ban on building in high-risk areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve never seen a deep analysis,” Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.apnews.com/b17b5c9200a64466b49f3f605f9202fe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told the Associated Press\u003c/a>. “And I think one has to be cautious about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This session, State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB182\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 182\u003c/a>, a bill that sought to dissuade local governments from building in very high fire hazard zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill required areas in which multiunit developments are approved to have a funded defensible space enforcement program, adequate emergency response capacity, and low-risk areas where residents can shelter from fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do have to build, but on the other hand, we don’t want to see another Paradise,” said Jackson. “This bill is designed to work with those competing interests and is designed to meet the needs of both.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the bill got tangled up in another controversial California issue: local requirements to build housing, set to help address the state’s housing crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Jackson’s bill specified that the wildfire building restrictions couldn’t be used to excuse an overall region from its housing requirement, some lawmakers thought it didn’t go far enough to protect housing mandates in individual cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way the bill is structured right now, it would let cities like Berkeley and some other cities off the hook and reduce their housing obligations when they have plenty of non-wildfire areas to build,” said State Sen. Scott Wiener, chair of the Senate Housing Committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Wiener agrees with the bill’s provision that regions should consider their fire risk when determining how much housing should be built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cities where most of the land or all of the land is in a high wildfire risk area?” he said. “We should not be building there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill failed to pass at the end of the legislative session in September, as lawmakers struggled to hammer out a compromise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we enter another fire season, I’m concerned that a lot of localities are going to be making a lot of bad decisions because we haven’t rung the bell that you can’t do this any longer,” State Sen. Bob Wieckowski said, when it became clear the bill wouldn’t proceed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener says he’s confident the bill can be passed in early 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The delay is going to be a very short delay,” he said. “Taking a little bit of extra time to make sure we get it right is not going to harm anyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Where State Funding Is Going: Emergency Response\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As soon as he took office, Newsom announced that tackling California’s wildfire readiness would be a priority for his administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If anyone is wondering if climate change is real, come to California,” he said in April. “We are in a very precarious state, literally and figuratively. It requires us to adapt. It requires us to be nimble. It requires us to meet the moment and meet the challenge. “\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is spending more than $900 million this year preparing for fires. More than $240 million is being directed at new firefighting crews, purchasing new aircraft and acquiring new technology. Large-scale forest management and vegetation-reduction projects received $225 million. Other funds are directed at improving emergency warning systems and 911 services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Improving existing homes and buildings gets little mention in the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/2019-20/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/EmergencyPreparednessResponseandRecovery.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">budget document\u003c/a>, only receiving a one-time $5 million infusion for defensible space programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While fire experts say improving emergency response is critical, shoring up existing communities will be as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no single solution that’s going to solve the fire problem,” said Valachovic. “It takes an all-hands-on-deck approach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1948013/california-lawmakers-plans-to-protect-homes-from-wildfire-fall-short","authors":["239"],"categories":["science_31","science_89","science_35","science_40","science_3730"],"tags":["science_5194","science_182","science_4203","science_3370","science_113"],"featImg":"science_1948020","label":"source_science_1948013"},"science_1934484":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1934484","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1934484","score":null,"sort":[1542618049000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"california-firefighters-use-supercomputers-to-forecast-wildfires","title":"California Firefighters Use Supercomputers to Forecast Wildfires","publishDate":1542618049,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California Firefighters Use Supercomputers to Forecast Wildfires | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>The deadly blazes burning in California have put a spotlight on the crucial role of evacuation. To save lives and property, firefighters must predict where a fire will spread within moments after it starts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, California firefighters are getting some help from a powerful new tool: supercomputers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crunching real-time data from satellites and weather stations, banks of servers are providing forecasts of how wildfires could behave over the next few hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those predictions could help fire agencies add crucial minutes to evacuation orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like other recent fires fanned by extreme weather and a warming climate, the still-burning Camp Fire in Butte County spread at a terrifying speed,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The abnormal is the new normal,” says Jonathan Cox, division chief with Cal Fire. “It’s something that 30-year firefighters have never seen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Computing Fires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, fire agencies predict how a fire will move by looking at the weather, terrain and fuel moisture, as well as relying on the decades of experience of fire analysts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an inexact science that is having to be done during the middle of an emergency,” says Cox. “So it can be extremely difficult to get a really precise idea of where a fire is going.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1934490\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1934490 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-800x656.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"656\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-800x656.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-160x131.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-768x630.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-1020x836.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-1180x968.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-960x787.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-240x197.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-375x308.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-520x426.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Comet supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. \u003ccite>(San Diego Supercomputer Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For years, many fire agencies have used basic software that can produce projections of the fire on laptop computers. But in recent years, the availability of real-time fire data has mushroomed. NASA satellites are providing detailed images of fire perimeters. Weather stations, field cameras and aerial reconnaissance flights provide even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s where supercomputers come in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our current supercomputer is called Comet,” says Ilkay Altintas of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sdsc.edu/about_sdsc/overview.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Diego Supercomputer Center\u003c/a> at UC San Diego. Comet has 2.76 petaflops of computing power — about the same as two million smartphones stuck together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The supercomputer center has developed \u003ca href=\"https://wifire.ucsd.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WIFIRE\u003c/a>, a fire behavior model that builds on existing models and adds in real-time data. It can run many simulations simultaneously, as soon as a fire breaks out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can understand where the fire will be, its rate of spread, its direction for the next couple of hours,” Altintas says. “Having that information in a matter of minutes, in your hand, as fast as possible, is very important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lately Comet has been churning out forecasts for the \u003ca href=\"https://la.curbed.com/2018/11/9/18080362/woolsey-fire-map-ventura-los-angeles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Woolsey Fire\u003c/a> burning in Southern California, and turning them over to Cal Fire. The agency has been reluctant to talk about their efficacy, saying use of the model is still experimental, but it’s part of a growing trend of more technology in firefighting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more information we can get and decisions we can make based on technology is obviously the future,” Cox says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, he doesn’t think machines will take the place of human judgment on the fire lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one more way that we can make decisions, but I don’t think it will ever replace the human factor because of the dynamics that come with these fires,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Predicting Erratic Fires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some wildfires that today’s computer models can’t predict well: in particular those that create their own weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California firefighters saw this back in July, battling the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11689687/deadly-carr-fire-fully-contained-but-work-is-far-from-over\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Carr Fire\u003c/a> near Redding. It was “unpredictable,” according to Cal Fire, spreading erratically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1934492\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1934492\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-800x491.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"491\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-800x491.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-768x471.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-1020x626.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-1200x736.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-1180x724.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-960x589.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-240x147.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-375x230.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-520x319.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">New fire computer models could help provide precious extra minutes for evacuation. \u003ccite>(JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It also produced a massive “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1928143/reddings-firenado-was-not-your-garden-variety-fire-whirl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fire tornado\u003c/a>” with winds over 160 miles per hour. It claimed the life of fire inspector Jeremy Stoke of the Redding Fire Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve seen a lot of fires that are driven primarily by these winds that are created by the fire itself,” says Janice Coen, scientist at the \u003ca href=\"https://ncar.ucar.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Center for Atmospheric Research\u003c/a> in Colorado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In these “plume-dominated” conditions, fire-generated winds propel the flames forward. Those winds can top 50 miles per hour, even though the winds outside may be much weaker. Current fire behavior models don’t account for that in their forecasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In some of the most destructive, most important cases, they come up short,” Coen says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coen is working on a computer model that simulates fire-driven weather, known as \u003ca href=\"https://ral.ucar.edu/solutions/products/coupled-atmosphere-wildland-fire-environment-cawfe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CAWFE\u003c/a>. She says it’s shown promise, but the hard part is rolling it out to fire agencies, because adopting new technology is risky for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s difficult to integrate new technology in firefighting in particular,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potential, she says, is that communities in fire-prone areas will be a bit safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have a lot of hope that we’ll be able to understand fires and anticipate their behavior,” says Coen, “so that we can learn from it and avoid more catastrophes in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"They can harness a flood of real-time data to make better forecasts for wildfires. But getting fire agencies to trust them is a challenge.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704927308,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":31,"wordCount":840},"headData":{"title":"California Firefighters Use Supercomputers to Forecast Wildfires | KQED","description":"They can harness a flood of real-time data to make better forecasts for wildfires. But getting fire agencies to trust them is a challenge.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"California Firefighters Use Supercomputers to Forecast Wildfires","datePublished":"2018-11-19T09:00:49.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T22:55:08.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Wildfires","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1934484/california-firefighters-use-supercomputers-to-forecast-wildfires","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The deadly blazes burning in California have put a spotlight on the crucial role of evacuation. To save lives and property, firefighters must predict where a fire will spread within moments after it starts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, California firefighters are getting some help from a powerful new tool: supercomputers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crunching real-time data from satellites and weather stations, banks of servers are providing forecasts of how wildfires could behave over the next few hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those predictions could help fire agencies add crucial minutes to evacuation orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like other recent fires fanned by extreme weather and a warming climate, the still-burning Camp Fire in Butte County spread at a terrifying speed,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The abnormal is the new normal,” says Jonathan Cox, division chief with Cal Fire. “It’s something that 30-year firefighters have never seen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Computing Fires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, fire agencies predict how a fire will move by looking at the weather, terrain and fuel moisture, as well as relying on the decades of experience of fire analysts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an inexact science that is having to be done during the middle of an emergency,” says Cox. “So it can be extremely difficult to get a really precise idea of where a fire is going.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1934490\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1934490 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-800x656.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"656\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-800x656.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-160x131.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-768x630.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-1020x836.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-1180x968.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-960x787.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-240x197.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-375x308.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/Comet-blue-520x426.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Comet supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. \u003ccite>(San Diego Supercomputer Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For years, many fire agencies have used basic software that can produce projections of the fire on laptop computers. But in recent years, the availability of real-time fire data has mushroomed. NASA satellites are providing detailed images of fire perimeters. Weather stations, field cameras and aerial reconnaissance flights provide even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s where supercomputers come in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our current supercomputer is called Comet,” says Ilkay Altintas of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sdsc.edu/about_sdsc/overview.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Diego Supercomputer Center\u003c/a> at UC San Diego. Comet has 2.76 petaflops of computing power — about the same as two million smartphones stuck together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The supercomputer center has developed \u003ca href=\"https://wifire.ucsd.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WIFIRE\u003c/a>, a fire behavior model that builds on existing models and adds in real-time data. It can run many simulations simultaneously, as soon as a fire breaks out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can understand where the fire will be, its rate of spread, its direction for the next couple of hours,” Altintas says. “Having that information in a matter of minutes, in your hand, as fast as possible, is very important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lately Comet has been churning out forecasts for the \u003ca href=\"https://la.curbed.com/2018/11/9/18080362/woolsey-fire-map-ventura-los-angeles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Woolsey Fire\u003c/a> burning in Southern California, and turning them over to Cal Fire. The agency has been reluctant to talk about their efficacy, saying use of the model is still experimental, but it’s part of a growing trend of more technology in firefighting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more information we can get and decisions we can make based on technology is obviously the future,” Cox says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, he doesn’t think machines will take the place of human judgment on the fire lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one more way that we can make decisions, but I don’t think it will ever replace the human factor because of the dynamics that come with these fires,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Predicting Erratic Fires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some wildfires that today’s computer models can’t predict well: in particular those that create their own weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California firefighters saw this back in July, battling the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11689687/deadly-carr-fire-fully-contained-but-work-is-far-from-over\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Carr Fire\u003c/a> near Redding. It was “unpredictable,” according to Cal Fire, spreading erratically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1934492\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1934492\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-800x491.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"491\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-800x491.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-768x471.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-1020x626.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-1200x736.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-1180x724.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-960x589.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-240x147.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-375x230.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33838_GettyImages-1059684614-520x319.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">New fire computer models could help provide precious extra minutes for evacuation. \u003ccite>(JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It also produced a massive “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1928143/reddings-firenado-was-not-your-garden-variety-fire-whirl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fire tornado\u003c/a>” with winds over 160 miles per hour. It claimed the life of fire inspector Jeremy Stoke of the Redding Fire Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve seen a lot of fires that are driven primarily by these winds that are created by the fire itself,” says Janice Coen, scientist at the \u003ca href=\"https://ncar.ucar.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Center for Atmospheric Research\u003c/a> in Colorado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In these “plume-dominated” conditions, fire-generated winds propel the flames forward. Those winds can top 50 miles per hour, even though the winds outside may be much weaker. Current fire behavior models don’t account for that in their forecasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In some of the most destructive, most important cases, they come up short,” Coen says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coen is working on a computer model that simulates fire-driven weather, known as \u003ca href=\"https://ral.ucar.edu/solutions/products/coupled-atmosphere-wildland-fire-environment-cawfe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CAWFE\u003c/a>. She says it’s shown promise, but the hard part is rolling it out to fire agencies, because adopting new technology is risky for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s difficult to integrate new technology in firefighting in particular,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potential, she says, is that communities in fire-prone areas will be a bit safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have a lot of hope that we’ll be able to understand fires and anticipate their behavior,” says Coen, “so that we can learn from it and avoid more catastrophes in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1934484/california-firefighters-use-supercomputers-to-forecast-wildfires","authors":["239"],"categories":["science_35","science_40","science_3730"],"tags":["science_5194","science_3820","science_3370","science_5175","science_461","science_113"],"featImg":"science_1934486","label":"source_science_1934484"},"science_1934332":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1934332","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1934332","score":null,"sort":[1542326473000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"the-largest-deadliest-and-most-destructive-fires-in-california-history","title":"The Largest, Deadliest and Most Destructive Fires in California History","publishDate":1542326473,"format":"standard","headTitle":"The Largest, Deadliest and Most Destructive Fires in California History | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cstrong>UPDATED: Monday, Dec. 5\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11705243/california-wildfires-what-you-need-to-know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Camp Fire burning in Butte County\u003c/a> became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, with 85 deaths reported to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five of the most destructive fires and two of the deadliest have occurred in the last two years, according to Cal Fire records. That doesn’t count the Thomas Fire in Southern California last year, in which just two people died as a direct result of the fire, but 21 more deaths were attributed to the mudslides that followed the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been doing this job for 31 years and probably in the last five, maybe seven years, every year seems to get worse,” Cal Fire Chief Scott Jalbert \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lej-NG9Qb4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told the \u003cem>Associated Press\u003c/em> recently\u003c/a>. He attributed some of the extreme fires to drought conditions and strong winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”eFcWMsVCKbrP5A0zx4EcbJ5R8rPwZe2Y”]Over the weekend President Trump twice \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1061168803218948096\">tweeted \u003c/a>that the \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1061554334276747264\">fires \u003c/a>were the result of poor forest management, threatening to withhold federal aid if the problem wasn’t remedied. But forest management is just one factor in fire prevention — with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11705903/megafires-more-frequent-because-of-climate-change-and-forest-management\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">climate change and global warming contributing to an increase in the number of large fires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Managing all the forests in every way we can does not stop climate change, and those who deny that are definitely contributing to the tragedies that we are now witnessing and will continue to witness,” Gov. Jerry Brown said during a news conference over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human-driven warming is \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Wildfires-getting-worse-due-to-climate-change-9961409.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drying out forests\u003c/a> to the point that peak fire seasons in the region have increased every year by about nine days since 2000, according to a 2017 study. Since 1970, average annual temperatures for the region have increased by 1.9 degree Farenheit, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/impacts/infographic-wildfires-climate-change.html#.W2thz_5KjOQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">about twice the pace\u003c/a> of the global average warming, according to data from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Meanwhile urbanization is contributing to the destructiveness of wildfires \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1928770\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as more people\u003c/a> move into harm’s way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”sAMHMv8j4MaXTDuTDFQaD5FcHgfSpODc”]What this means is the list of biggest and most destructive fires may need more updating soon. Below are the current top ten largest, most destructive and deadliest wildfires, according to Cal Fire records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>See all of our ongoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/wildfires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wildfire coverage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1934341\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1934341\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-960x638.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-375x249.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-520x346.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor the flames during the Thomas Fire in Dec. 2017. \u003ccite>(ROBYN BECK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Top 10 Largest Fires\u003c/h3>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Mendocino Complex, July 2018.\u003c/strong> Mendocino, Lake, Glenn and Colusa counties. 459,123 acres burned. 280 structures destroyed. One death. Cause is still under investigation\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Thomas Fire, December 2017.\u003c/strong> Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. 281,893 acres burned. 1,063 structures destroyed. Two deaths (with an additional 21 deaths attributed to the mudslides that followed the fire). Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Cedar Fire, October 2003.\u003c/strong> San Diego County. 273,246 acres burned. 2,820 structures destroyed. Fifteen deaths. Sparked by a signal fire from lost hunter.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Rush Fire, August 2012.\u003c/strong> Lassen County. 271,911 acres burned (with an additional 43,665 acres burned in Nevada). No structures destroyed. Zero deaths. Sparked by lightning.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Rim Fire, August 2013.\u003c/strong> Tuolumne County. 257,314 acres burned. 112 structures destroyed. Zero deaths. Sparked by camp fire.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Zaca Fire, July 2007.\u003c/strong> Santa Barbara County. 240,207 acres burned. One structure destroyed. Zero deaths. The fire was caused by sparks from a grinding machine on private property.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Carr Fire, July 2018\u003c/strong>. Shasta and Trinity counties. 229,651 acres. 1,604 structures destroyed. Eight deaths. Sparked by a tractor trailer scraping against pavement.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Matilija Fire, September 1932.\u003c/strong> Ventura County. 220,000 acres burned. No structures destroyed. Zero deaths. Unknown cause.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Witch Fire, October 2007.\u003c/strong> San Diego County. 197,990 acres burned. 1,650 structures destroyed. Two deaths. Sparked by power lines.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Klamath Theater Complex, June 2008.\u003c/strong> Siskiyou County. 192,038 acres. Zero structures destroyed. Two deaths. Sparked by lightning.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1934339\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1934339\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The destruction in Paradise has wiped out nearly the entire town. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Top 10 Most Destructive Fires\u003c/h3>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Camp Fire, November 2018 (ongoing).\u003c/strong> Butte County. As of Nov. 16, About 16,000 structures destroyed. 151,000 acres burned. 77 deaths. Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Tubbs Fire, October 2017\u003c/strong>. Napa and Sonoma counties. 5,643 structures destroyed. 36,807 acres burned. 22 deaths. Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Tunnel-Oakland Hills Fire, October 1991\u003c/strong>. Alameda County. 2,900 structures destroyed. 1,600 acres burned. 25 deaths. Sparked by a rekindled grassfire and spread by heavy winds.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Cedar Fire, October 2003\u003c/strong>. San Diego. 2,820 structures destroyed. 273,246 acres burned. Fifteen deaths. Sparked by a signal fire from lost hunter.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Valley Fire, September 2015\u003c/strong>. Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties. 1,955, structures destroyed. 76,067 acres burned. Four deaths. Sparked by faulty wiring in a hot tub installation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Witch Fire, October 2007.\u003c/strong> San Diego County. 1,650 structures destroyed. 197,990 acres burned. Two deaths. Sparked by power lines.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Carr Fire, July 2018.\u003c/strong> Shasta and Trinity counties. 1,604 structures destroyed. 229,651 acres burned. Eight deaths. Sparked by a tractor trailer scraping against pavement.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Nuns Fire, October 2017.\u003c/strong> Sonoma County. 1,355 structures destroyed. 54,382 acres burned. Three deaths. Cause still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Thomas Fire, December 2017.\u003c/strong> Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. 1,063 structures destroyed. 281,893 acres burned. Two deaths (with an additional 21 deaths attributed to the mudslides that followed the fire). Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Old Fire, October 2003\u003c/strong>. San Bernardino County. 1,003 structures destroyed. 91,281 acres burned. Six deaths. One man convicted of arson for starting the fire.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1934383\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1934383\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two women look through the remains of the Tubbs Fire at Journey’s End Mobile Home Park in Santa Rosa. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Top 10 Deadliest Fires\u003c/h3>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Camp Fire, November 2018 (ongoing).\u003c/strong> Butte County. As of Nov. 19, 77 deaths. 151,000 acres burned. About 16,000 structures destroyed. Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Griffith Park, October 1933.\u003c/strong> Los Angeles. 29 deaths. 47 acres burned. Zero structures destroyed. Started as a brush fire, unknown was sparked the fire.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Tunnel-Oakland Hills Fire, October 1991\u003c/strong>. Alameda County. 25 deaths. 1,600 acres burned. 2,900 structures destroyed. Sparked by a rekindled grassfire and spread by heavy winds.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Tubbs Fire, October 2017\u003c/strong>. Napa and Sonoma counties. 22 deaths. 36,807 acres burned. 5,643 structures destroyed. Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Cedar Fire, October 2003\u003c/strong>. San Diego. Fifteen deaths. 273,246 acres burned. 2,820 structures destroyed. Sparked by a signal fire from lost hunter.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Rattlesnake Fire, July 1953. \u003c/strong>Glenn County. Fifteen deaths. 1,340 acres burned. Zero structures destroyed. Started as arson.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Loop Fire, November 1966. \u003c/strong>Los Angeles County. Twelve deaths. 2,028 acres burned. Zero structures destroyed. Sparked by power lines.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Hauser Creek, October 1943.\u003c/strong> San Diego County. Eleven deaths. 43,904 acres burned. Zero structures destroyed. Cause unknown, likely sparked by a wayward bullet from a military training exercise.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Inaja Fire, November 1956.\u003c/strong> San Diego County. Eleven deaths. 1,345 acres burned. Zero structures destroyed. Sparked by a match at a campfire site.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Iron Alps Complex, August 2008.\u003c/strong> Trinity County. Ten deaths. 105,855 acres burned. Ten structures destroyed. Sparked by lightning.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*Though only two deaths were attributed to the Thomas Fire in December 2017 in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, 21 people died as a result of the mudslides that followed the fire.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The number of deadly and destructive megafires has increased in recent years.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704927315,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":12,"wordCount":1264},"headData":{"title":"The Largest, Deadliest and Most Destructive Fires in California History | KQED","description":"The number of deadly and destructive megafires has increased in recent years.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"The Largest, Deadliest and Most Destructive Fires in California History","datePublished":"2018-11-16T00:01:13.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T22:55:15.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"sticky":false,"path":"/science/1934332/the-largest-deadliest-and-most-destructive-fires-in-california-history","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>UPDATED: Monday, Dec. 5\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11705243/california-wildfires-what-you-need-to-know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Camp Fire burning in Butte County\u003c/a> became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, with 85 deaths reported to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five of the most destructive fires and two of the deadliest have occurred in the last two years, according to Cal Fire records. That doesn’t count the Thomas Fire in Southern California last year, in which just two people died as a direct result of the fire, but 21 more deaths were attributed to the mudslides that followed the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been doing this job for 31 years and probably in the last five, maybe seven years, every year seems to get worse,” Cal Fire Chief Scott Jalbert \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lej-NG9Qb4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told the \u003cem>Associated Press\u003c/em> recently\u003c/a>. He attributed some of the extreme fires to drought conditions and strong winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>Over the weekend President Trump twice \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1061168803218948096\">tweeted \u003c/a>that the \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1061554334276747264\">fires \u003c/a>were the result of poor forest management, threatening to withhold federal aid if the problem wasn’t remedied. But forest management is just one factor in fire prevention — with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11705903/megafires-more-frequent-because-of-climate-change-and-forest-management\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">climate change and global warming contributing to an increase in the number of large fires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Managing all the forests in every way we can does not stop climate change, and those who deny that are definitely contributing to the tragedies that we are now witnessing and will continue to witness,” Gov. Jerry Brown said during a news conference over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human-driven warming is \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Wildfires-getting-worse-due-to-climate-change-9961409.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drying out forests\u003c/a> to the point that peak fire seasons in the region have increased every year by about nine days since 2000, according to a 2017 study. Since 1970, average annual temperatures for the region have increased by 1.9 degree Farenheit, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/impacts/infographic-wildfires-climate-change.html#.W2thz_5KjOQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">about twice the pace\u003c/a> of the global average warming, according to data from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Meanwhile urbanization is contributing to the destructiveness of wildfires \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1928770\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as more people\u003c/a> move into harm’s way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>What this means is the list of biggest and most destructive fires may need more updating soon. Below are the current top ten largest, most destructive and deadliest wildfires, according to Cal Fire records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>See all of our ongoing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/wildfires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wildfire coverage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1934341\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1934341\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-960x638.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-375x249.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1-520x346.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS28632_Thomas-Fire-1.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor the flames during the Thomas Fire in Dec. 2017. \u003ccite>(ROBYN BECK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Top 10 Largest Fires\u003c/h3>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Mendocino Complex, July 2018.\u003c/strong> Mendocino, Lake, Glenn and Colusa counties. 459,123 acres burned. 280 structures destroyed. One death. Cause is still under investigation\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Thomas Fire, December 2017.\u003c/strong> Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. 281,893 acres burned. 1,063 structures destroyed. Two deaths (with an additional 21 deaths attributed to the mudslides that followed the fire). Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Cedar Fire, October 2003.\u003c/strong> San Diego County. 273,246 acres burned. 2,820 structures destroyed. Fifteen deaths. Sparked by a signal fire from lost hunter.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Rush Fire, August 2012.\u003c/strong> Lassen County. 271,911 acres burned (with an additional 43,665 acres burned in Nevada). No structures destroyed. Zero deaths. Sparked by lightning.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Rim Fire, August 2013.\u003c/strong> Tuolumne County. 257,314 acres burned. 112 structures destroyed. Zero deaths. Sparked by camp fire.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Zaca Fire, July 2007.\u003c/strong> Santa Barbara County. 240,207 acres burned. One structure destroyed. Zero deaths. The fire was caused by sparks from a grinding machine on private property.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Carr Fire, July 2018\u003c/strong>. Shasta and Trinity counties. 229,651 acres. 1,604 structures destroyed. Eight deaths. Sparked by a tractor trailer scraping against pavement.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Matilija Fire, September 1932.\u003c/strong> Ventura County. 220,000 acres burned. No structures destroyed. Zero deaths. Unknown cause.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Witch Fire, October 2007.\u003c/strong> San Diego County. 197,990 acres burned. 1,650 structures destroyed. Two deaths. Sparked by power lines.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Klamath Theater Complex, June 2008.\u003c/strong> Siskiyou County. 192,038 acres. Zero structures destroyed. Two deaths. Sparked by lightning.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1934339\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1934339\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS33883_IMG_1259-qut-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The destruction in Paradise has wiped out nearly the entire town. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Top 10 Most Destructive Fires\u003c/h3>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Camp Fire, November 2018 (ongoing).\u003c/strong> Butte County. As of Nov. 16, About 16,000 structures destroyed. 151,000 acres burned. 77 deaths. Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Tubbs Fire, October 2017\u003c/strong>. Napa and Sonoma counties. 5,643 structures destroyed. 36,807 acres burned. 22 deaths. Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Tunnel-Oakland Hills Fire, October 1991\u003c/strong>. Alameda County. 2,900 structures destroyed. 1,600 acres burned. 25 deaths. Sparked by a rekindled grassfire and spread by heavy winds.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Cedar Fire, October 2003\u003c/strong>. San Diego. 2,820 structures destroyed. 273,246 acres burned. Fifteen deaths. Sparked by a signal fire from lost hunter.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Valley Fire, September 2015\u003c/strong>. Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties. 1,955, structures destroyed. 76,067 acres burned. Four deaths. Sparked by faulty wiring in a hot tub installation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Witch Fire, October 2007.\u003c/strong> San Diego County. 1,650 structures destroyed. 197,990 acres burned. Two deaths. Sparked by power lines.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Carr Fire, July 2018.\u003c/strong> Shasta and Trinity counties. 1,604 structures destroyed. 229,651 acres burned. Eight deaths. Sparked by a tractor trailer scraping against pavement.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Nuns Fire, October 2017.\u003c/strong> Sonoma County. 1,355 structures destroyed. 54,382 acres burned. Three deaths. Cause still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Thomas Fire, December 2017.\u003c/strong> Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. 1,063 structures destroyed. 281,893 acres burned. Two deaths (with an additional 21 deaths attributed to the mudslides that followed the fire). Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Old Fire, October 2003\u003c/strong>. San Bernardino County. 1,003 structures destroyed. 91,281 acres burned. Six deaths. One man convicted of arson for starting the fire.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1934383\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1934383\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/11/RS27478_journeys-end3-qut-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two women look through the remains of the Tubbs Fire at Journey’s End Mobile Home Park in Santa Rosa. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Top 10 Deadliest Fires\u003c/h3>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Camp Fire, November 2018 (ongoing).\u003c/strong> Butte County. As of Nov. 19, 77 deaths. 151,000 acres burned. About 16,000 structures destroyed. Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Griffith Park, October 1933.\u003c/strong> Los Angeles. 29 deaths. 47 acres burned. Zero structures destroyed. Started as a brush fire, unknown was sparked the fire.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Tunnel-Oakland Hills Fire, October 1991\u003c/strong>. Alameda County. 25 deaths. 1,600 acres burned. 2,900 structures destroyed. Sparked by a rekindled grassfire and spread by heavy winds.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Tubbs Fire, October 2017\u003c/strong>. Napa and Sonoma counties. 22 deaths. 36,807 acres burned. 5,643 structures destroyed. Cause is still under investigation.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Cedar Fire, October 2003\u003c/strong>. San Diego. Fifteen deaths. 273,246 acres burned. 2,820 structures destroyed. Sparked by a signal fire from lost hunter.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Rattlesnake Fire, July 1953. \u003c/strong>Glenn County. Fifteen deaths. 1,340 acres burned. Zero structures destroyed. Started as arson.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Loop Fire, November 1966. \u003c/strong>Los Angeles County. Twelve deaths. 2,028 acres burned. Zero structures destroyed. Sparked by power lines.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Hauser Creek, October 1943.\u003c/strong> San Diego County. Eleven deaths. 43,904 acres burned. Zero structures destroyed. Cause unknown, likely sparked by a wayward bullet from a military training exercise.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Inaja Fire, November 1956.\u003c/strong> San Diego County. Eleven deaths. 1,345 acres burned. Zero structures destroyed. Sparked by a match at a campfire site.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Iron Alps Complex, August 2008.\u003c/strong> Trinity County. Ten deaths. 105,855 acres burned. Ten structures destroyed. Sparked by lightning.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*Though only two deaths were attributed to the Thomas Fire in December 2017 in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, 21 people died as a result of the mudslides that followed the fire.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1934332/the-largest-deadliest-and-most-destructive-fires-in-california-history","authors":["1459"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_40","science_3730"],"tags":["science_5194","science_3820","science_113"],"featImg":"science_1934338","label":"science"},"science_1928625":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1928625","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1928625","score":null,"sort":[1540333252000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"__trashed-35","title":"Fuel Matters: Why Wildfire Behavior Depends on What's Burning","publishDate":1540333252,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Fuel Matters: Why Wildfire Behavior Depends on What’s Burning | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>In his latest attack on California’s forest management policies, President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that the solution to the state’s punishing wildfire season should be a no-brainer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re tired of giving California hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, all the time for their forest fires,” Trump told the White House State Leadership Day Conference, “when you wouldn’t have them if they managed their forests properly. They don’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving aside the fact that nearly 60 percent of California’s forestland is managed by the federal government, most scientists agree that the buildup of fuels is a factor in fire severity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s not nearly that simple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters on the ground know that fire behaves very differently depending on whether the flames are spreading in grass, chaparral, forest, or a mix. And according to fire scientists, property owners and policymakers should be paying more attention to these differences, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Building the Campfire\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve ever built a campfire, you know that you need different kinds of fuel to get a fire going: paper, small twigs, or pine needles to ignite the fire, then small sticks to keep it going, and finally big logs that keep the fire going and produce the big flames that keep you warm all night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires work the same way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters categorize plants based on their size and how quickly they dry out — and consequently, how easily they will ignite and burn. Grasses are 1-hour fuels, sometimes called light fuels, or flashy fuels. If the weather becomes hot and dry, they become just as dry as the surrounding atmosphere in about an hour. Trees and dead logs and are usually 100 or 1000-hour fuels; it takes much longer before they’re ready to burn, but when they get going they can give off bigger flames, more intense heat, and can burn for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930109\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1930109\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-800x566.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"566\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-800x566.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-160x113.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-768x543.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-1020x721.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-1200x849.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-1920x1358.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-1180x834.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-960x679.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-240x170.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-375x265.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-520x368.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As of August 16, the Mendocino Complex had burned over 370,000 acres. The larger Ranch Fire has burned in a mix of forest and shubland, while the smaller River Fire has burned mostly in shrubland. \u003ccite>(Allie Weill)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Multiplying Threat\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of this range of fuel types, you get different kinds of fires at different times of year, according to Jonathan Cox, a battalion chief with Cal Fire. Earlier in the season, blazes tend to be grass fires that are easier to get under control, though extreme weather can make it harder. The County Fire, which started at the end of June in Yolo County, burned mostly in grasses and shrubs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the summer wears on, the big stuff dries out, too. The Carr Fire, which began in late July and has driven the destruction around Redding, has burned through a lot of heavily forested land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930036\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1930036\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-800x566.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"566\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-768x543.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-1020x721.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-1200x849.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-1180x835.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-960x679.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-240x170.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-375x265.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-520x368.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As of August 16, the Carr Fire had burned over 200,000 acres. A lot of that land was forest, unlike in many earlier season fires, or fires in other parts of the state.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In mid-July, Cox noted that heavier fuels were already starting to be receptive to fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a problem,” he told KQED, “because it takes more resources, and it takes more time to suppress those types of fuels. That’s why, as the fire season progresses, it’s kind of a continuing threat that kind of multiplies as those heavier fuels dry out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Trouble with Grasses\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might seem like light fuels — like grasses — are preferable to heavy forest fuels or dense shrublands. In general, they are easier to manage because the flames are smaller and it’s easier for firefighters to maneuver. But grass fires have their own challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The easier it is for fuels to dry out, the faster the rate of spread. According to Cox, fire spreads twice as fast in grass as it does in brush, and twice as fast in brush as it does in timber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930037\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1930037\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-800x566.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"566\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-768x543.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-1020x721.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-1200x849.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-1180x835.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-960x679.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-240x170.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-375x265.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-520x368.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Ferguson Fire, burning near Yosemite National Park, burned first in areas of grass and shrubs but has expanded into forested areas.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Because of their faster spread, grass fires are often the deadliest. Cox says a common denominator among some of the most destructive fires is that they started in light, flashy fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a very big kind of watch-out factor for firefighters as far as their safety is concerned,” he adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“It is a very big kind of watch-out factor for firefighters as far as their safety is concerned.”\u003ccite>Jonathan Cox, Cal Fire Battalion Chief\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>No One Size Fits All\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nIt’s not just firefighters who need to be aware of fuel types. There are implications for land managers and homeowners, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one thing, it offers clues to future fire patterns in any given area, points out \u003ca href=\"https://consbio.org/people/staff/alexandra-syphard\">Alexandra Syphard\u003c/a>, a fire specialist at the Conservation Biology Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area and coastal Southern California, shrublands, grasslands, and forests come together in a patchwork of fuel types. Managing these lands for wildfire hazard, ecology, and resource value can be a challenge. When it comes to managing fire in the coast ranges, “there’s no one-size-fits-all,” said UC Berkeley fire scientist Scott Stephens at a symposium in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930035\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1930035\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-800x566.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"566\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-768x543.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-1020x721.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-1200x849.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-1180x835.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-960x679.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-240x170.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-375x265.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-520x368.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 2017 Tubbs Fire burned in an area with a patchwork of land types, including forest, shrubland, grassland, agriculture, and urban Santa Rosa.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Because fire behaves differently in different types of fuels, if you change the fuel type, you change the fire you get there. The reverse is also true: if you change the amount of fire, you can change the type of fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, native grasslands and woodlands \u003ca href=\"http://www.publish.csiro.au/wf/WF05003\">once flourished in the Bay Area\u003c/a>, maintained by regular cultural burns by Native Americans and by grazing. A reduction in grazing, as well as the end of these traditional burns, led to the conversion of grassland to shrubland and an increase in heavy fuels in some areas. Indigenous groups and conservation organizations are \u003ca href=\"https://www.hcn.org/issues/49.21/wildfire-what-fire-researchers-learned-from-northern-california-blazes\">working to return fire\u003c/a> to the land in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Grass Versus Shrub In Southern California\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, coastal Southern California and some chaparral areas in other parts of the state actually have as much or more frequent fire today than they did historically, explains Syphard. The result is \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-68303-4_12\">a widespread conversion of chaparral\u003c/a> to non-native grassland. This process may be accelerated by climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Syphard and other researchers who focus on chaparral \u003ca href=\"https://d2k78bk4kdhbpr.cloudfront.net/media/publications/files/Halsey_and_Syphard_High_Severity_Fire_in_Chaparral_20151.pdf\">caution against\u003c/a> the indiscriminate application of fire management practices that work for forests or other regions — like prescribed fire or cutting fuel breaks — to Southern California shrublands. \u003ca href=\"http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/094005/pdf\">Research shows\u003c/a> that these tools aren’t that effective during big chaparral fires driven by Santa Ana winds, like the Thomas Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And those light flashy fuels might make it easier to fight the fire, but they also increase the risk of ignition in the first place. Syphard’s \u003ca href=\"https://d2k78bk4kdhbpr.cloudfront.net/media/publications/files/Comparingtheroleoffuelbreaks.pdf\">research\u003c/a> has shown that fuel breaks are mostly effective as an access point for firefighters and not so much as a hazard reduction, because exotic grasses fill in the gaps. The same conclusion might apply to management around homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re removing shrubland or woody vegetation that has pretty high fuel moisture and replacing it with grasslands that you’re not going to irrigate, you could unknowingly be putting yourself in an even worse position than you were before, ” Syphard cautions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930038\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1930038\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-800x566.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"566\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-768x543.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-1020x721.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-1200x849.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-1180x835.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-960x679.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-240x170.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-375x265.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-520x368.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last winter’s Thomas Fire, the second-largest fire on record in California, burned mostly in shrubland. Some areas within the perimeter have burned so many times in recent years that shrubland has converted to grassland.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s not an easy story, says Syphard, and managing fuels means balancing safety, cultural, and ecological concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the most important things to understand is that it’s very geographically variable and the relationships that might be true in one region are likely to be really different than others,” says Syphard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jared Dahl Aldern, an environmental historian, agrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know the whole southern California region is a distinct place with its own characteristics as compared to, for instance, the Sierra Nevada, ” he says. “So the key is to collaborate with local experts, including tribes who have some experience and some idea with how to proceed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Fire behaves differently depending on whether it burns in grasses, shrubs or forest. Firefighters know this well -- but scientists say that land managers and homeowners should think about it, too.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704927359,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":35,"wordCount":1422},"headData":{"title":"Fuel Matters: Why Wildfire Behavior Depends on What's Burning | KQED","description":"Fire behaves differently depending on whether it burns in grasses, shrubs or forest. Firefighters know this well -- but scientists say that land managers and homeowners should think about it, too.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Fuel Matters: Why Wildfire Behavior Depends on What's Burning","datePublished":"2018-10-23T22:20:52.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T22:55:59.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Wildfire","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1928625/__trashed-35","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In his latest attack on California’s forest management policies, President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that the solution to the state’s punishing wildfire season should be a no-brainer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re tired of giving California hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, all the time for their forest fires,” Trump told the White House State Leadership Day Conference, “when you wouldn’t have them if they managed their forests properly. They don’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving aside the fact that nearly 60 percent of California’s forestland is managed by the federal government, most scientists agree that the buildup of fuels is a factor in fire severity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s not nearly that simple.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters on the ground know that fire behaves very differently depending on whether the flames are spreading in grass, chaparral, forest, or a mix. And according to fire scientists, property owners and policymakers should be paying more attention to these differences, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Building the Campfire\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’ve ever built a campfire, you know that you need different kinds of fuel to get a fire going: paper, small twigs, or pine needles to ignite the fire, then small sticks to keep it going, and finally big logs that keep the fire going and produce the big flames that keep you warm all night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires work the same way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters categorize plants based on their size and how quickly they dry out — and consequently, how easily they will ignite and burn. Grasses are 1-hour fuels, sometimes called light fuels, or flashy fuels. If the weather becomes hot and dry, they become just as dry as the surrounding atmosphere in about an hour. Trees and dead logs and are usually 100 or 1000-hour fuels; it takes much longer before they’re ready to burn, but when they get going they can give off bigger flames, more intense heat, and can burn for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930109\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1930109\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-800x566.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"566\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-800x566.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-160x113.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-768x543.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-1020x721.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-1200x849.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-1920x1358.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-1180x834.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-960x679.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-240x170.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-375x265.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Mendocino_768-520x368.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As of August 16, the Mendocino Complex had burned over 370,000 acres. The larger Ranch Fire has burned in a mix of forest and shubland, while the smaller River Fire has burned mostly in shrubland. \u003ccite>(Allie Weill)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Multiplying Threat\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of this range of fuel types, you get different kinds of fires at different times of year, according to Jonathan Cox, a battalion chief with Cal Fire. Earlier in the season, blazes tend to be grass fires that are easier to get under control, though extreme weather can make it harder. The County Fire, which started at the end of June in Yolo County, burned mostly in grasses and shrubs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the summer wears on, the big stuff dries out, too. The Carr Fire, which began in late July and has driven the destruction around Redding, has burned through a lot of heavily forested land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930036\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1930036\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-800x566.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"566\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-768x543.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-1020x721.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-1200x849.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-1180x835.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-960x679.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-240x170.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-375x265.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Carr-520x368.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As of August 16, the Carr Fire had burned over 200,000 acres. A lot of that land was forest, unlike in many earlier season fires, or fires in other parts of the state.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In mid-July, Cox noted that heavier fuels were already starting to be receptive to fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a problem,” he told KQED, “because it takes more resources, and it takes more time to suppress those types of fuels. That’s why, as the fire season progresses, it’s kind of a continuing threat that kind of multiplies as those heavier fuels dry out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Trouble with Grasses\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might seem like light fuels — like grasses — are preferable to heavy forest fuels or dense shrublands. In general, they are easier to manage because the flames are smaller and it’s easier for firefighters to maneuver. But grass fires have their own challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The easier it is for fuels to dry out, the faster the rate of spread. According to Cox, fire spreads twice as fast in grass as it does in brush, and twice as fast in brush as it does in timber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930037\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1930037\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-800x566.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"566\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-768x543.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-1020x721.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-1200x849.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-1180x835.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-960x679.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-240x170.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-375x265.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Ferguson-520x368.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Ferguson Fire, burning near Yosemite National Park, burned first in areas of grass and shrubs but has expanded into forested areas.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Because of their faster spread, grass fires are often the deadliest. Cox says a common denominator among some of the most destructive fires is that they started in light, flashy fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a very big kind of watch-out factor for firefighters as far as their safety is concerned,” he adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“It is a very big kind of watch-out factor for firefighters as far as their safety is concerned.”\u003ccite>Jonathan Cox, Cal Fire Battalion Chief\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>No One Size Fits All\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nIt’s not just firefighters who need to be aware of fuel types. There are implications for land managers and homeowners, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one thing, it offers clues to future fire patterns in any given area, points out \u003ca href=\"https://consbio.org/people/staff/alexandra-syphard\">Alexandra Syphard\u003c/a>, a fire specialist at the Conservation Biology Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area and coastal Southern California, shrublands, grasslands, and forests come together in a patchwork of fuel types. Managing these lands for wildfire hazard, ecology, and resource value can be a challenge. When it comes to managing fire in the coast ranges, “there’s no one-size-fits-all,” said UC Berkeley fire scientist Scott Stephens at a symposium in May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930035\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1930035\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-800x566.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"566\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-768x543.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-1020x721.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-1200x849.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-1180x835.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-960x679.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-240x170.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-375x265.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Tubbs-520x368.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 2017 Tubbs Fire burned in an area with a patchwork of land types, including forest, shrubland, grassland, agriculture, and urban Santa Rosa.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Because fire behaves differently in different types of fuels, if you change the fuel type, you change the fire you get there. The reverse is also true: if you change the amount of fire, you can change the type of fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, native grasslands and woodlands \u003ca href=\"http://www.publish.csiro.au/wf/WF05003\">once flourished in the Bay Area\u003c/a>, maintained by regular cultural burns by Native Americans and by grazing. A reduction in grazing, as well as the end of these traditional burns, led to the conversion of grassland to shrubland and an increase in heavy fuels in some areas. Indigenous groups and conservation organizations are \u003ca href=\"https://www.hcn.org/issues/49.21/wildfire-what-fire-researchers-learned-from-northern-california-blazes\">working to return fire\u003c/a> to the land in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Grass Versus Shrub In Southern California\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, coastal Southern California and some chaparral areas in other parts of the state actually have as much or more frequent fire today than they did historically, explains Syphard. The result is \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-68303-4_12\">a widespread conversion of chaparral\u003c/a> to non-native grassland. This process may be accelerated by climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Syphard and other researchers who focus on chaparral \u003ca href=\"https://d2k78bk4kdhbpr.cloudfront.net/media/publications/files/Halsey_and_Syphard_High_Severity_Fire_in_Chaparral_20151.pdf\">caution against\u003c/a> the indiscriminate application of fire management practices that work for forests or other regions — like prescribed fire or cutting fuel breaks — to Southern California shrublands. \u003ca href=\"http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/094005/pdf\">Research shows\u003c/a> that these tools aren’t that effective during big chaparral fires driven by Santa Ana winds, like the Thomas Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And those light flashy fuels might make it easier to fight the fire, but they also increase the risk of ignition in the first place. Syphard’s \u003ca href=\"https://d2k78bk4kdhbpr.cloudfront.net/media/publications/files/Comparingtheroleoffuelbreaks.pdf\">research\u003c/a> has shown that fuel breaks are mostly effective as an access point for firefighters and not so much as a hazard reduction, because exotic grasses fill in the gaps. The same conclusion might apply to management around homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re removing shrubland or woody vegetation that has pretty high fuel moisture and replacing it with grasslands that you’re not going to irrigate, you could unknowingly be putting yourself in an even worse position than you were before, ” Syphard cautions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930038\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1930038\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-800x566.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"566\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-768x543.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-1020x721.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-1200x849.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-1180x835.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-960x679.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-240x170.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-375x265.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/08/KQEDScience_Thomas-520x368.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last winter’s Thomas Fire, the second-largest fire on record in California, burned mostly in shrubland. Some areas within the perimeter have burned so many times in recent years that shrubland has converted to grassland.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s not an easy story, says Syphard, and managing fuels means balancing safety, cultural, and ecological concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the most important things to understand is that it’s very geographically variable and the relationships that might be true in one region are likely to be really different than others,” says Syphard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jared Dahl Aldern, an environmental historian, agrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know the whole southern California region is a distinct place with its own characteristics as compared to, for instance, the Sierra Nevada, ” he says. “So the key is to collaborate with local experts, including tribes who have some experience and some idea with how to proceed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1928625/__trashed-35","authors":["11518"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_42","science_3730"],"tags":["science_5194","science_762","science_113"],"featImg":"science_1926804","label":"source_science_1928625"},"science_1928113":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1928113","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1928113","score":null,"sort":[1532984381000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"california-prison-inmates-guard-troops-highway-patrol-called-to-battle-fires","title":"California Prison Inmates Battle Fires","publishDate":1532984381,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California Prison Inmates Battle Fires | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>National Guard troops, Highway Patrol officers and teams of state prison inmates have joined fire crews struggling to battle the deadly Carr and Ferguson fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Triple-digit temperatures and steep terrain are challenging firefighters’ containment efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘This fire is scary to us. It’s something we haven’t seen before. It changes direction so often. If you receive an alert or see an officer urging you to evacuate, please listen to us and get yourself out.’\u003ccite>Redding Police Chief Roger Moore\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5927/\">Ferguson Fire\u003c/a> is burning in remote areas surrounding Yosemite National Park.The wildfire has scarred more than 56,000 acres and is currently 30 percent contained. CalFire officials say they should have it fully contained in roughly two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/incidentdetails/Index/2164\">Carr Fire\u003c/a> continues to threaten homes in Shasta and Trinity counties, as firefighters battle against wind and extreme fire conditions. Fire officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.co.shasta.ca.us/index/sheriff_index.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lifted some evacuation orders\u003c/a> today, but thousands of people are still prohibited from returning home. The fire is 20 percent contained, with crews working to \u003ca href=\"http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/incidentdetails/Index/2164\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hold the control lines\u003c/a> they built Sunday night .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Redding Police Chief Roger Moore spoke of the fear many are feeling and the need for prompt evacuations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This fire is scary to us. It’s something we haven’t seen before. It changes direction so often. If you receive an alert on your phone or see an officer urging you to evacuate, please listen to us and get yourself out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Resources Strained\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Carr and Ferguson fires are only 2 of 17 major blazes \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101866493/firefighters-battle-17-major-blazes-across-california\">currently being fought\u003c/a> across the state. Each requires a dedicated team of firefighters, and as resources become strained the state is mobilizing additional sources of manpower across 125 agencies to help with firefighting efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”gZYDcQ9h4mrAu0SMhcBI4IdMuilw7bcs”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Highway Patrol Commissioner Warren Stanley has sent 118 uniformed officers to the Carr Fire to help with evacuations, including officers from the Bay area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Conservation_Camps/\">Conservation Camp Program\u003c/a>, an inmate work project under the direction of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, is also sending its teams. The program provides an able-bodied, trained work force of inmates who must be approved to work alongside Cal Fire crews on fire suppression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program supports around 3,500 inmates, spread across the state in 43 camps. The men and women of the program live in their assigned camps year-round, working on fire prevention and conservation projects when not actively fighting fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we have large fires like this, we move crews all over the state,” says Bill Sessa, an information officer with CDCR. “We move crews from other areas to provide backup fire protection. Literally, we have all our crews moving all day, every day, when we get into these major firestorms that are spread all over the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conservation Camp teams numbering 1,700 inmates are currently being dispatched across 10 different fires to help cut containment lines and maintain equipment. Most of the effort, Sessa says, is being directed toward the largest fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[emailsignup newslettername='science' align='right']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some have been working on the Ferguson fire since it broke out more than a week ago,” he says, “and many are being redirected to the Carr fire, which seems to have exploded in size.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are currently 450 inmates assigned to the Ferguson fire and 599 to the Carr fire. They frequently work for 24 hours straight, carrying heavy loads of up to 60 pounds. Working in teams of 12 under the direction of Cal Fire captains, they hack away vegetation in an effort to stop the spread of fire or to change its direction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you hear news reports of a fire being ‘X-percent contained,’” says Sessa, that is the work of our crews.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1928286\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1928286\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-520x346.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inmate firefighters battle the Ferguson fire in Jerseydale, California, on July 22, 2018. \u003ccite>(NOAH BERGER/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Volunteers are evaluated based on their security risk, physical ability and criminal history, Sessa said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a great amount of teamwork that is required for these teams to work, so we are looking for those who have a respect for the law, a willingness to work as a team, a willingness to take on the discipline of working on a fire crew.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California National Guard has also sent 800 troops to the Carr Fire. Among them are crews to operate six helicopters, two C-130 planes to drop fire retardant, and an MQ-9 remotely-piloted aircraft for collecting real-time footage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is our home,” Major Todd Morgan wrote in a \u003ca style=\"color: #41a62a\" href=\"https://www.facebook.com/CAGUARD/\">Facebook\u003c/a> post. Whether it is in Napa, Yosemite, Fresno, or Ventura County, every Californian is affected by the wildfires. When we go out, this isn’t just another mission we are tasked with, this is taking care of and defending our home, our neighbors, friends, and family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Ferguson and Carr fires combined are responsible for eight \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11683457/death-toll-up-to-5-as-carr-fire-continues-to-burn-in-redding\">fatalities\u003c/a>, including four firefighters and four civilians. But with more than a dozen people reported missing, authorities warn this number could rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Carr fire encroaches on Redding city limits, the threat of extensive property and structural damage also increases. Several hundred structures have already been destroyed, with a further 5,012 threatened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Governor Brown received a fire management assistance grant to help fund firefighting efforts, and has also received direct federal assistance from the White House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Michelle Wiley contributed to this post.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California wildfires have gotten so large and unruly that crews from the National Guard and the state prison system's Conservation Camp are helping battle the blazes.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704927637,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":28,"wordCount":931},"headData":{"title":"California Prison Inmates Battle Fires | KQED","description":"California wildfires have gotten so large and unruly that crews from the National Guard and the state prison system's Conservation Camp are helping battle the blazes.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"California Prison Inmates Battle Fires","datePublished":"2018-07-30T20:59:41.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T23:00:37.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"sticky":false,"path":"/science/1928113/california-prison-inmates-guard-troops-highway-patrol-called-to-battle-fires","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>National Guard troops, Highway Patrol officers and teams of state prison inmates have joined fire crews struggling to battle the deadly Carr and Ferguson fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Triple-digit temperatures and steep terrain are challenging firefighters’ containment efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘This fire is scary to us. It’s something we haven’t seen before. It changes direction so often. If you receive an alert or see an officer urging you to evacuate, please listen to us and get yourself out.’\u003ccite>Redding Police Chief Roger Moore\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5927/\">Ferguson Fire\u003c/a> is burning in remote areas surrounding Yosemite National Park.The wildfire has scarred more than 56,000 acres and is currently 30 percent contained. CalFire officials say they should have it fully contained in roughly two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/incidentdetails/Index/2164\">Carr Fire\u003c/a> continues to threaten homes in Shasta and Trinity counties, as firefighters battle against wind and extreme fire conditions. Fire officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.co.shasta.ca.us/index/sheriff_index.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lifted some evacuation orders\u003c/a> today, but thousands of people are still prohibited from returning home. The fire is 20 percent contained, with crews working to \u003ca href=\"http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/incidentdetails/Index/2164\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hold the control lines\u003c/a> they built Sunday night .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Redding Police Chief Roger Moore spoke of the fear many are feeling and the need for prompt evacuations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This fire is scary to us. It’s something we haven’t seen before. It changes direction so often. If you receive an alert on your phone or see an officer urging you to evacuate, please listen to us and get yourself out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Resources Strained\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Carr and Ferguson fires are only 2 of 17 major blazes \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101866493/firefighters-battle-17-major-blazes-across-california\">currently being fought\u003c/a> across the state. Each requires a dedicated team of firefighters, and as resources become strained the state is mobilizing additional sources of manpower across 125 agencies to help with firefighting efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Highway Patrol Commissioner Warren Stanley has sent 118 uniformed officers to the Carr Fire to help with evacuations, including officers from the Bay area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Conservation_Camps/\">Conservation Camp Program\u003c/a>, an inmate work project under the direction of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, is also sending its teams. The program provides an able-bodied, trained work force of inmates who must be approved to work alongside Cal Fire crews on fire suppression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program supports around 3,500 inmates, spread across the state in 43 camps. The men and women of the program live in their assigned camps year-round, working on fire prevention and conservation projects when not actively fighting fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we have large fires like this, we move crews all over the state,” says Bill Sessa, an information officer with CDCR. “We move crews from other areas to provide backup fire protection. Literally, we have all our crews moving all day, every day, when we get into these major firestorms that are spread all over the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conservation Camp teams numbering 1,700 inmates are currently being dispatched across 10 different fires to help cut containment lines and maintain equipment. Most of the effort, Sessa says, is being directed toward the largest fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"emailsignup","attributes":{"named":{"newslettername":"science","align":"right","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some have been working on the Ferguson fire since it broke out more than a week ago,” he says, “and many are being redirected to the Carr fire, which seems to have exploded in size.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are currently 450 inmates assigned to the Ferguson fire and 599 to the Carr fire. They frequently work for 24 hours straight, carrying heavy loads of up to 60 pounds. Working in teams of 12 under the direction of Cal Fire captains, they hack away vegetation in an effort to stop the spread of fire or to change its direction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you hear news reports of a fire being ‘X-percent contained,’” says Sessa, that is the work of our crews.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1928286\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1928286\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/ww2.kqed_.orgGettyImages-1004100802-1-de81cdb9c22de8fcd82ae241b76a2289c1eb2671-2-520x346.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inmate firefighters battle the Ferguson fire in Jerseydale, California, on July 22, 2018. \u003ccite>(NOAH BERGER/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Volunteers are evaluated based on their security risk, physical ability and criminal history, Sessa said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a great amount of teamwork that is required for these teams to work, so we are looking for those who have a respect for the law, a willingness to work as a team, a willingness to take on the discipline of working on a fire crew.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California National Guard has also sent 800 troops to the Carr Fire. Among them are crews to operate six helicopters, two C-130 planes to drop fire retardant, and an MQ-9 remotely-piloted aircraft for collecting real-time footage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is our home,” Major Todd Morgan wrote in a \u003ca style=\"color: #41a62a\" href=\"https://www.facebook.com/CAGUARD/\">Facebook\u003c/a> post. Whether it is in Napa, Yosemite, Fresno, or Ventura County, every Californian is affected by the wildfires. When we go out, this isn’t just another mission we are tasked with, this is taking care of and defending our home, our neighbors, friends, and family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Ferguson and Carr fires combined are responsible for eight \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11683457/death-toll-up-to-5-as-carr-fire-continues-to-burn-in-redding\">fatalities\u003c/a>, including four firefighters and four civilians. But with more than a dozen people reported missing, authorities warn this number could rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Carr fire encroaches on Redding city limits, the threat of extensive property and structural damage also increases. Several hundred structures have already been destroyed, with a further 5,012 threatened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Governor Brown received a fire management assistance grant to help fund firefighting efforts, and has also received direct federal assistance from the White House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Michelle Wiley contributed to this post.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1928113/california-prison-inmates-guard-troops-highway-patrol-called-to-battle-fires","authors":["11520"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_39","science_40","science_3730"],"tags":["science_5194","science_113","science_159"],"featImg":"science_1928288","label":"science"},"science_1927988":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1927988","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1927988","score":null,"sort":[1532725561000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"how-wildfires-are-breaking-the-rules-in-california-by-racing-downhill","title":"California Wildfires Are Breaking the Rules by Burning Downhill Fast","publishDate":1532725561,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California Wildfires Are Breaking the Rules by Burning Downhill Fast | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>Right now, on the outskirts of Redding, a rampaging wildfire is doing something that was once unusual: It’s burning fast…downhill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fires are burning almost as fast downhill as they burn uphill,” said Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean, from the scene of the Carr Fire, which by midday Friday had torched more than 44,000 acres and was only 3 percent contained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not typical. One of the first things wildland firefighters learn is that fires burn much faster uphill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s simple physics: heat rises, so the heat from the fire warms and dries out the upslope fuels fastest. It’s also a case of proximity: if you draw a picture of a flame on a slope, you’ll see that there’s a much shorter distance between flame and ground on the uphill side than downhill, so the fire can jump directly from one blade of grass to another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the wind. During the day, when fires are typically most active, wind tends to blow uphill, carrying heat and embers up the slope. Facing a fire coming up a hill has long been a serious threat to firefighters, and fires moving rapidly uphill have been implicated in many of the deadliest fires for firefighters, such as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_rp009.pdf\">South Canyon Fire\u003c/a> of 1994 and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_int/int_gtr299.pdf\">Mann Gulch Fire\u003c/a> of 1949, which killed 14 and 13 firefighters, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the dangers of fighting a fire burning up a hill, crews working in hilly terrain take advantage of the opposite effect, anchoring firefighting operations on the downhill side of a fire and using the slope as a buffer zone as fire will move more slowly downhill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this trick has become less reliable in recent years. Chris Anthony, a division chief at Cal Fire who has worked on fires for more than 25 years, has observed more examples of fires spreading rapidly downhill. The Carr Fire is just one example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers haven’t measured this trend yet, so nobody knows for sure why this might be happening, but Anthony has an idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things that really contributes to that, right now, is we came out of this very long drought period, and we still have a lot of fuels out there, that are very dry or very dead, even,” says Anthony. “And so they carry fire much more rapidly than prior to the drought.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wet winter that followed the drought added to the fuel load. The hillsides are now so packed with dry grasses that the slope matters less on a downhill run. When there’s so much ready fuel, combined with hot, dry conditions and strong winds, fires just move faster in all directions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An uptick in downhill fire behavior might also be related to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926996/something-else-adding-fuel-to-californias-fire-season-warmer-nights\">increase in nighttime temperatures\u003c/a>. On a typical day, local winds move uphill during the day and downhill in the evening. In the past, cooler nighttime temperatures could impede fire activity driven by these evening winds. But if fires remain active at night, local evening winds could drive faster downslope fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, the trend toward more intense downhill fires is anecdotal, and some researchers are hesitant to speculate why firefighters might be seeing this behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is that a statistically significant trend?” asks Nick Nauslar, a fire weather forecaster at the National Weather Service’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.spc.noaa.gov/\">Storm Prediction Center\u003c/a> in Oklahoma. “And if so what might be causing that? There would have to be a couple more steps before I try to make assumptions or formulate theories on why that might be happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Fires that burn quickly downhill are particularly worrisome because communities are often situated at the base of the mountains.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Regardless, there have always been some downslope fires that spread quickly. Santa Ana and Diablo winds typically run downslope, says Nauslar. These winds have long driven most of California’s most destructive fires, including the 2017 Wine Country Fires, which were the state’s deadliest fires, and the Thomas Fire in Southern California, now the state’s largest fire on record. There’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/climate/caifornia-fires-wind.html\">mixed evidence\u003c/a> as to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/12/01/santa-ana-wind-season-may-be-stretched-by-climate-change/\">whether climate change is affecting the strength or frequency of these winds\u003c/a>, but they were especially powerful last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We saw \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1917067/wine-country-fires-were-fanned-by-unprecedented-winds\">some of the strongest winds\u003c/a> in recorded history, especially from that direction, that northerly, northeastern component winds, and that’s downslope,” says Nauslar of the Wine Country fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rapidly spreading downhill fires also played a major role in last winter’s Thomas Fire. It coincided with the longest Santa Ana wind event on record, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/1/1/18/xml\">a recent analysis\u003c/a> of the 2017 fires led by Nauslar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You would still see very, very active fire behavior on the downslope portion of those fires,” adds Anthony, “because those fuels were so extremely dry and the climatic conditions were such that embers would start new fires ahead of the main fire front.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1928127\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1928127\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Coffey Park house ruins\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Remnants of Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood after the October fires of 2017. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fires that burn quickly downhill are particularly worrisome because communities are often situated at the base of the mountains. Last fall, it was a downslope fire that pushed into Santa Rosa and drove \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1916352/santa-rosa-residents-face-neighborhoods-destroyed-by-fire\">the destruction of Coffey Park\u003c/a> and other local communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters are keeping careful tabs on changes in fire behavior to help prevent tragedies like what happened in Santa Rosa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we get reports that we’re going to have a large downslope or down-canyon wind in the evenings,” notes Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox, “there’s things we can do such as reinforcing the downhill line, putting additional resources below the fire in anticipation, and understanding that when the fire comes downhill what the risks might be as far as communities or hazards or whatnot that we need to protect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tools are there to manage downhill fires, but Cal Fire’s general approach to firefighting may need to readjust to changing times as these difficult conditions become more common. Climate change is expected to continue to increase nighttime temperatures and the types of extreme weather that has primed fuels this year for faster, bigger fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes us really have to reevaluate our strategy,” says Anthony, “and not just expect that fire to just transition to something that is going to burn less intensely.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Fires that burn quickly downhill are especially worrisome as towns are often situated at the base of the mountains.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704927649,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":24,"wordCount":1098},"headData":{"title":"California Wildfires Are Breaking the Rules by Burning Downhill Fast | KQED","description":"Fires that burn quickly downhill are especially worrisome as towns are often situated at the base of the mountains.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"California Wildfires Are Breaking the Rules by Burning Downhill Fast","datePublished":"2018-07-27T21:06:01.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T23:00:49.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Environment","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1927988/how-wildfires-are-breaking-the-rules-in-california-by-racing-downhill","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Right now, on the outskirts of Redding, a rampaging wildfire is doing something that was once unusual: It’s burning fast…downhill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fires are burning almost as fast downhill as they burn uphill,” said Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean, from the scene of the Carr Fire, which by midday Friday had torched more than 44,000 acres and was only 3 percent contained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not typical. One of the first things wildland firefighters learn is that fires burn much faster uphill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s simple physics: heat rises, so the heat from the fire warms and dries out the upslope fuels fastest. It’s also a case of proximity: if you draw a picture of a flame on a slope, you’ll see that there’s a much shorter distance between flame and ground on the uphill side than downhill, so the fire can jump directly from one blade of grass to another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the wind. During the day, when fires are typically most active, wind tends to blow uphill, carrying heat and embers up the slope. Facing a fire coming up a hill has long been a serious threat to firefighters, and fires moving rapidly uphill have been implicated in many of the deadliest fires for firefighters, such as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_rp009.pdf\">South Canyon Fire\u003c/a> of 1994 and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_int/int_gtr299.pdf\">Mann Gulch Fire\u003c/a> of 1949, which killed 14 and 13 firefighters, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the dangers of fighting a fire burning up a hill, crews working in hilly terrain take advantage of the opposite effect, anchoring firefighting operations on the downhill side of a fire and using the slope as a buffer zone as fire will move more slowly downhill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this trick has become less reliable in recent years. Chris Anthony, a division chief at Cal Fire who has worked on fires for more than 25 years, has observed more examples of fires spreading rapidly downhill. The Carr Fire is just one example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers haven’t measured this trend yet, so nobody knows for sure why this might be happening, but Anthony has an idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things that really contributes to that, right now, is we came out of this very long drought period, and we still have a lot of fuels out there, that are very dry or very dead, even,” says Anthony. “And so they carry fire much more rapidly than prior to the drought.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wet winter that followed the drought added to the fuel load. The hillsides are now so packed with dry grasses that the slope matters less on a downhill run. When there’s so much ready fuel, combined with hot, dry conditions and strong winds, fires just move faster in all directions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An uptick in downhill fire behavior might also be related to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926996/something-else-adding-fuel-to-californias-fire-season-warmer-nights\">increase in nighttime temperatures\u003c/a>. On a typical day, local winds move uphill during the day and downhill in the evening. In the past, cooler nighttime temperatures could impede fire activity driven by these evening winds. But if fires remain active at night, local evening winds could drive faster downslope fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, the trend toward more intense downhill fires is anecdotal, and some researchers are hesitant to speculate why firefighters might be seeing this behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is that a statistically significant trend?” asks Nick Nauslar, a fire weather forecaster at the National Weather Service’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.spc.noaa.gov/\">Storm Prediction Center\u003c/a> in Oklahoma. “And if so what might be causing that? There would have to be a couple more steps before I try to make assumptions or formulate theories on why that might be happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Fires that burn quickly downhill are particularly worrisome because communities are often situated at the base of the mountains.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Regardless, there have always been some downslope fires that spread quickly. Santa Ana and Diablo winds typically run downslope, says Nauslar. These winds have long driven most of California’s most destructive fires, including the 2017 Wine Country Fires, which were the state’s deadliest fires, and the Thomas Fire in Southern California, now the state’s largest fire on record. There’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/climate/caifornia-fires-wind.html\">mixed evidence\u003c/a> as to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/12/01/santa-ana-wind-season-may-be-stretched-by-climate-change/\">whether climate change is affecting the strength or frequency of these winds\u003c/a>, but they were especially powerful last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We saw \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1917067/wine-country-fires-were-fanned-by-unprecedented-winds\">some of the strongest winds\u003c/a> in recorded history, especially from that direction, that northerly, northeastern component winds, and that’s downslope,” says Nauslar of the Wine Country fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rapidly spreading downhill fires also played a major role in last winter’s Thomas Fire. It coincided with the longest Santa Ana wind event on record, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/1/1/18/xml\">a recent analysis\u003c/a> of the 2017 fires led by Nauslar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You would still see very, very active fire behavior on the downslope portion of those fires,” adds Anthony, “because those fuels were so extremely dry and the climatic conditions were such that embers would start new fires ahead of the main fire front.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1928127\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1928127\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Coffey Park house ruins\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/IMG_9145-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Remnants of Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood after the October fires of 2017. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fires that burn quickly downhill are particularly worrisome because communities are often situated at the base of the mountains. Last fall, it was a downslope fire that pushed into Santa Rosa and drove \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1916352/santa-rosa-residents-face-neighborhoods-destroyed-by-fire\">the destruction of Coffey Park\u003c/a> and other local communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters are keeping careful tabs on changes in fire behavior to help prevent tragedies like what happened in Santa Rosa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we get reports that we’re going to have a large downslope or down-canyon wind in the evenings,” notes Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox, “there’s things we can do such as reinforcing the downhill line, putting additional resources below the fire in anticipation, and understanding that when the fire comes downhill what the risks might be as far as communities or hazards or whatnot that we need to protect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tools are there to manage downhill fires, but Cal Fire’s general approach to firefighting may need to readjust to changing times as these difficult conditions become more common. Climate change is expected to continue to increase nighttime temperatures and the types of extreme weather that has primed fuels this year for faster, bigger fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes us really have to reevaluate our strategy,” says Anthony, “and not just expect that fire to just transition to something that is going to burn less intensely.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1927988/how-wildfires-are-breaking-the-rules-in-california-by-racing-downhill","authors":["11518"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_40","science_42"],"tags":["science_5194","science_1622","science_3370","science_3464","science_113"],"featImg":"science_1928112","label":"source_science_1927988"}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.","airtime":"SUN 2pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.possible.fm/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"Possible"},"link":"/radio/program/possible","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"}},"1a":{"id":"1a","title":"1A","info":"1A is home to the national conversation. 1A brings on great guests and frames the best debate in ways that make you think, share and engage.","airtime":"MON-THU 11pm-12am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/1a.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://the1a.org/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/1a","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=1188724250&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/1A-p947376/","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510316/podcast.xml"}},"all-things-considered":{"id":"all-things-considered","title":"All Things Considered","info":"Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.","airtime":"MON-FRI 1pm-2pm, 4:30pm-6:30pm\u003cbr />SAT-SUN 5pm-6pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/All-Things-Considered-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/all-things-considered"},"american-suburb-podcast":{"id":"american-suburb-podcast","title":"American Suburb: The Podcast","tagline":"The flip side of gentrification, told through one town","info":"Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/American-Suburb-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"/news/series/american-suburb-podcast","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"13"},"link":"/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=1287748328","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/American-Suburb-p1086805/","rss":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/feed/podcast","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMzMDExODgxNjA5"}},"baycurious":{"id":"baycurious","title":"Bay Curious","tagline":"Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time","info":"KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","imageAlt":"\"KQED Bay Curious","officialWebsiteLink":"/news/series/baycurious","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"4"},"link":"/podcasts/baycurious","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious","rss":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/category/bay-curious-podcast/feed/podcast","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvbmV3cy9jYXRlZ29yeS9iYXktY3VyaW91cy1wb2RjYXN0L2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdA","stitcher":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/bay-curious","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/6O76IdmhixfijmhTZLIJ8k"}},"bbc-world-service":{"id":"bbc-world-service","title":"BBC World Service","info":"The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.","airtime":"MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service","meta":{"site":"news","source":"BBC World Service"},"link":"/radio/program/bbc-world-service","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/","rss":"https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"}},"code-switch-life-kit":{"id":"code-switch-life-kit","title":"Code Switch / Life Kit","info":"\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />","airtime":"SUN 9pm-10pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","meta":{"site":"radio","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"}},"commonwealth-club":{"id":"commonwealth-club","title":"Commonwealth Club of California Podcast","info":"The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.","airtime":"THU 10pm, FRI 1am","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts","meta":{"site":"news","source":"Commonwealth Club of California"},"link":"/radio/program/commonwealth-club","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/Commonwealth-Club-of-California-p1060/"}},"considerthis":{"id":"considerthis","title":"Consider This","tagline":"Make sense of the day","info":"Make sense of the day. Every weekday afternoon, Consider This helps you consider the major stories of the day in less than 15 minutes, featuring the reporting and storytelling resources of NPR. Plus, KQED’s Bianca Taylor brings you the local KQED news you need to know.","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Consider-This-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","imageAlt":"Consider This from NPR and KQED","officialWebsiteLink":"/podcasts/considerthis","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"7"},"link":"/podcasts/considerthis","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1503226625?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/coronavirusdaily","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM1NS9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbA","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/3Z6JdCS2d0eFEpXHKI6WqH"}},"forum":{"id":"forum","title":"Forum","tagline":"The conversation starts here","info":"KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.","airtime":"MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","imageAlt":"KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal","officialWebsiteLink":"/forum","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"8"},"link":"/forum","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-forum/id73329719","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432307980/forum","stitcher":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-forum-podcast","rss":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9557381633"}},"freakonomics-radio":{"id":"freakonomics-radio","title":"Freakonomics Radio","info":"Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. 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