On the heels of the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season in state history, officials across California are growing increasingly anxious over what many fear will be another one.
Chad Hanson, executive director and research ecologist at John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute, points to extreme fire danger because of overgrown grasses and trees very close to and hanging over structures in the residential community of Sugarloaf near Big Bear.
Fire experts and climatologists warn that the heavy rains of recent months produced an excess of vegetation, which over the hot summer will become dry fuel. At the same time, the death toll from— and the Tubbs fire the year before that — has highlighted the vulnerability of communities throughout the state.
“I anticipate there’s a whole lot of people in suburban Southern California, and frankly in the Bay Area, that would never consider themselves a part of that ‘1 out of 4 Californians that live in a fire risk area,’ but they actually do,” said Wade Crowfoot, head of the California Natural Resources Agency.
In Idyllwild, authorities have been sounding the alarm for years about the buildup of tinder-dry trees and brush.Amanda Mayer is aware of the fire danger presented by overhanging branches over her two-story home in the residential community of Sugarloaf near Big Bear City. For all the urgency local and state officials are bringing into fire preparations this year, their methods for reducing the risks are nothing new.
The state’s current strategy — which relies primarily on altering forestland — is costly financially and environmentally, they argue. It also has failed to prevent deaths and massive property loss in extreme, wind-driven fire events such as the Camp and Tubbs fires — which together killed more than 100 people.
“I understand the comfort in people’s voices when they say: ‘The Forest Service plans to thin the forests around here. So, we’ll be OK,’ ” he said. “But they are wrong.” As part of a scripted scenario, officers told residents that a fire had broken out nearby, amid 25- to 35-mph winds with gusts up to 40 mph. Residents had two hours to clear out before a shower of embers, and then flames, arrived.
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