SACRAMENTO— A critical town hall on wildfire preparedness and prevention took place on Tuesday. Promoted by Senator Mike McGuire with CAL FIRE Northern California Assistant Region Chief Jake Hess and Marin County Fire Chief Jason Weber as guests, the meeting covered how the state is responding in this era of mega-fires, what type of expanded resources are available this summer and fall to protect our communities and what folks can do to better prepare themselves for wildfire season.
“Even though we’ve experienced 12 atmospheric rivers, we have still experienced drought or near drought conditions in many counties in California. Particularly in northern California, with a robust grass crop that we’re dealing with right now, it has created a significant fuel loading. We are seeing right now in our simulations that fires are actually looking like they have more energy due to the herbaceous fuel loading that is very is receptive and is going to be very receptive. We have also noticed that there has been widespread storm damage on live vegetation at the 1,500 to 2,500 foot level. We’re tracking the science behind accelerated snow melt off associated with very large fire scars,” Hess said.
He also thanked the Senator and all legislation partners who have been supporting the expansion of firefighting resources: “We have been able to bolster our response capabilities since 2014, added fire detection and fire modeling which is incredibly important to us, so we can help predict fire growth and aid in these evacuation decisions and some of our decision points. We are starting to evacuate people more often and earlier. What we found over the last few years is we have no room for error, so we’re being very diligent when it comes to these evacuation decision points.”
According to McGuire, in addition to staffing up CalFire to address the firefighter shortage, “we also have invested tens of millions of dollars to be able to staff up the California Conservation Corps, advance wildfire prevention work removing dead and dying trees, and creating wildfire fuel breaks. We have also invested millions on the California National Guard who have now become directly engaged in a wildfire response. This is an all hands on deck effort each and every year. It’s not going to change. We’re very focused on this and you’re only going to see enhanced improvements.”
Weber, who has dedicated his life to the fire service, protecting communities, declared the fire season is getting longer, hotter and drier. “We know our climate is changing. The swings are greater than they’ve ever been. We’re doing a lot from the state and local government agency side on fire protection, but we need your support. We can’t do this alone. Our fire seasons are 70 days longer on average than they were in the 1970s. That means that the grasses are drying earlier. We have to do a better job preparing our homes. We’ve increased the amount of capabilities we have in the fire service to respond,” he said.
