Last year, as the Wragg fire raged in Napa County, Lake County Fire Protection District Chief Willie Sapeta lamented the state of Lake County’s wildlands. After four years of drought, he said, they were primed for potentially dangerous blazes.
Shortly afterward, the first of six named fires that consumed some 20 percent of the county’s land, caused four deaths and destroyed 1,300 homes erupted.
Nothing this year has changed his outlook, not even the El Nino rains.
“Our fuels are typical of what we saw last year,” Sapeta said. “The grass is taller, thicker than anytime in the last 5 to 7 years,” he added, pointing out that flames will tear through dry grass and brush.
Lake County has experienced only relatively minor incidents to date, with the 69 acre Foothill Fire the largest. Yet according to Cal Fire reports, the state is already well ahead of 2015’s terrifying pace.
Through July 23, Cal Fire had registered 3,137 fires across the state, covering 57,972 acres. A year ago at the same point, 3,094 fires blackened 29,953 acres.
Indeed, as the end of July approached a year ago, the state was enjoying a bit of a reprieve. On average, almost 40,000 acres had burned by that point.
“Bottom line, we’ve been fortunate,” observed Captain Bob Ray of the Lakeport Fire Protection District. “The conditions are just as bad as far as the potential for large fires.”
One reason for such caution is the growing number of dead and dying trees spotted up and down the state.
Dead trees ignite easier than live ones, and the trees act as fire ladders. This enables flames to reach higher and throw embers farther afield. The trees also burn longer and hotter than smaller fuels, such as grass or shrubs, and their radiant heat can be so intense that it pushes nearby shrubs and grass to their flash points.
Drought is an obvious culprit, but other foes are contributing. In the San Bernardino and Sierra Nevada Mountains, trees are perishing en masse because of native bark beetles that have flourished during four consecutive years of drought and heat.
Since 2010, at least 66 million trees have died across the state, according to aerial surveys. And the problem is ramping up: While 40 million of those trees died between 2010 and October 2015, 26 million died in the southern Sierra Nevada alone between October and June.
“Drought is definitely a big stressor, particularly consecutive years of drought,” said Kevin Turner, who works on beetle issues for the UC Cooperative Extension. “Trees that normally pitch insects out can’t produce enough sap to push them out.”
Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, asked Congress to increase funding for the U.S. Forest Service to support better woodland management practices.
“Tree die-offs of this magnitude are unprecedented and increase the risk of catastrophic wildfires that put property and lives at risk,” Vilsack said in a prepared statement.
While many of the dead tree counts focus on other areas of the state, parched trees are common in Lake County.
“A lot of them are in a lot of stress,” Ray said. “Anything that didn’t burn last year is still there this year.”
Of course, the county is still in the process of recovering from last year’s devastating fire season. The Valley and Rocky Fires were unprecedented. They consumed land at a rate experts had not prepared for, raced downhill as quickly as they roared up and fed on drafts they created.
“The unpredictability of the fires — it was something none of us had seen before,” Sapeta said. “The season was a learning process.”
As a result, local districts have established additional automatic aid agreements. These dispatch units from several local stations without the need for a radio request. This allows for more resources to hit a fire quickly.
Many of the small fires Lake County crews have encountered this summer started as a result of inattention, Sapeta noted. Even after the Rocky and Valley Fires, people use power tools in the heat of the day or pull running cars over dry grass.
Sapeta also urged more homeowners to establish a defensible space around structures.
“You have to give us something to work with,” he said.
So with many calling this the halfway point of fire season, fire crews remain on the alert.
“Halfway is a conservative guess,” Sapeta pointed out. “We have potentially three more months and these hot days, windy days — everything is primed.”
Aaron Orlowski of the Southern California News Group contributed to this report
