Fire officials are bracing for an active fire season in Northern California as high temperatures dry out forests. Southern California will likely see a typical season.
Coastal Southern California can expect a typical wildfire season, fire weather analysts predict. That’s in sharp contrast to Northern California. Here, a Downey Fire Department firefighter helps to battle the Sandy fire in Simi Valley in May.
Southern California’s top fire officials met behind closed doors in East Los Angeles Friday to discuss the outlook for this year’s peak fire season and how to coordinate the region’s world-class firefighters to keep communities safe. At a press conference afterward, officials stressed that even though coastal Southern California is not expected to have an exceptionally dangerous fire season, they are doing everything they can to protect Californians. They urged residents to do the same.
“It is clear that wildfires are no longer solely a fire-service problem. They are an all-of-us problem,” said Orange County Fire Authority Interim Chief T.J. McGovern, standing in front of a suite of emergency response vehicles at L.A. County Fire Department’s headquarters.
“They can only be mitigated by all of us working together. ”Can California boost wildfire prevention with less cash? A new plan proposes to do just that State and federal fire officials have unveiled a new plan to boost wildfire prevention, even as California funding sources are drying up. Coastal Southern California, which had the third-wettest season in record within the last 15 years, can expect a typical wildfire season, fire weather analysts predict.
That’s in sharp contrast to Northern California, which saw a record-breaking March heat wave“The interesting thing about last year is that it was the southern half of the state that was significantly drier,” said Cal Fire Director Joe Tyler at abefore reaching typical conditions July through September — and even “typical” conditions remain dangerous, which is why officials urged Southern Californians Friday to remain vigilant. A huge fire threatened to burn a pristine California island.
Inside the fight to preserve this oasis It’s been just days since firefighters reached full containment of the 18,379-acre blaze on Santa Rosa Island.
Crews are now assessing the damage to this ecological and cultural oasis.against wildfire — including covering vents with mesh to prevent embers from entering the home and using multi-paned tempered windows that are less likely to shatter in extreme heat.around homes by clearing dead vegetation in their yards, making sure there is space between shrubs and trees and creating aHomeowners should also make sure they’re signed up for evacuation alerts from their local fire department, the chiefs added, and should not hesitate to evacuate at the sight or smell of smoke — regardless of whether an official evacuation has been ordered.
As for their part, Southern California fire departments have been working to thin out hazardous vegetation surrounding communities and remain at the ready to respond to fires.
“We will show up. We show up every time, across every jurisdiction ... That’s not a question,” said Los Angeles City Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore.
However, without defensible space at individual homes, it is “very difficult for us to be able to combat those fires. ”surrounding communities in the Santa Monica Mountains with fire department crews, goats and prescribed fire. The U.S. Forest Service has been doing similar work in the San Gabriel Mountains. The crews are working to create a network of vegetation-free pathways, called fuel breaks, that can slow fires and give firefighters strategic access to wildlands to combat blazes.
They are also working to remove particularly flammable invasive grasses.
“As we share our preparation to defend communities and build wildfire resilience, it’s a call to action,” Angeles National Forest Fire Chief Robert Garcia said. “It’s now a shift to individual homeowners and communities to start leveraging some of that work that your agencies are doing. ”Neither the state’s funding woes nor the shrinking of the federal workforce are expected to impact firefighting ability.
“It is absolutely as strong as ever,” Tyler said last month of the federal and state government’s ability to respond to fires. Noah Haggerty is an environment and science reporter at the Los Angeles Times covering wildfire in the American West. A graduate of Northeastern University, he has a background in physics research, focusing on spacecraft propulsion and fusion energy. Haggerty joined The Times in 2024 as an AAAS Mass Media Fellow.
Rebuilding L.A. : How One Altadena Neighborhood Builds Back, Piece By Piece It turns out you can burn down a neighborhood and not destroy a community. We’ve seen evidence of this all across L.A. and so we will head back to one neighborhood that’s a good example of that bond: West Poppyfields Drive in Altadena. Modern LA earned its first smoggy nickname 450 years ago, as the “bay of smokes.
” At the La Brea tar pits, we take a short walk through a long history with curator Regan Dunn, who explains how and why the first Angelenos would have set fires that filled the broad bowl of LA and foretold the curse of smog.
Please follow us on Google to support us United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Southern California Edison Equipment May Have Caused Eaton Fire, According to Court DocumentsProperty insurers have blamed Southern California Edison for causing the Eaton Fire and are seeking to hold the utility responsible for millions of dollars in damages. The Trump administration sued Edison last year, alleging the utility was responsible for sparking the Eaton and Fairview fires and seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages. A video showing two bright flashes near an electrical tower carrying a century-old, inactive line provides new evidence supporting claims that Edison equipment played a role in igniting the wildfire.
Read more »
New video appears to show flashes at SoCal Edison towers before Eaton FireThe cause of the Eaton Fire remains under investigation.
Read more »
Fire destroys medical equipment warehouse in California and prompts evacuations at nearby facilitiesTRACY, Calif. (AP) — A fire at a medical equipment warehouse in Northern California sent thick black smoke pouring into the sky Thursday and prompted evacuations of other nearby facilities as authorities fought to get the blaze under…
Read more »
Fire destroys medical equipment warehouse in California and prompts evacuations at nearby facilitiesA fire has destroyed a medical equipment warehouse east of San Francisco and sent thick black smoke pouring into the sky.
Read more »