Flanked by fire officials, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday warned Californians to be alert as the state heads into what could be a worse-than-expected fire season following a brutal heat wave that dried out vegetation and contributed to far more acres burning statewide than normal.
“The last two years we’ve seen a below-average number of acres burned. But this year portends some more challenges,” Newsom said, urging residents to “take seriously the opportunity to prepare themselves.”
So far this year, 207,415 acres have burned in California wildfires. That’s five times the average of the previous five years, 38,593 acres, through July 10. Although more acres have burned, there have been fewer fires: 3,543 this year, compared with a five-year average of 3,659.
Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler said that two wet winters in a row built up significant amounts of grass across the state, some of it four feet tall or higher. Several very windy days and the heat wave made fires spread quickly, he said.
But there have been no fatalities, Tyler noted, and the number of structures burned has been relatively low so far, even when recent fires threatened Oroville and Mariposa.
“We need to be extra cautious in these hot, dry and windy conditions,” Tyler said.
He urged people to mow grass early in the morning when humidity levels are higher and to be careful with chainsaws, grinders, tractors and other equipment that can spark fires.
With a back drop of helicopters, planes and fire commanders at the Cal Fire Aviation Management Unit in Sacramento, Newsom said at a news conference Wednesday that Cal Fire officials have hit their target four years in a row for thinning or conducting controlled burns on 100,000 acres or more of forests and other lands at risk of wildfire.
The state has 9,700 Cal Fire personnel this summer, compared with 6,700 in 2018, he added.
A leading fire scientist agreed that fire danger is rising as the hottest summer months loom. Until the recent heat wave, moisture levels in grasses and brush around the state were running near average or better, said John Abatzoglou, professor of climate science at UC Merced. Now they are near record dry.
“The heat wave has really dried the state out,” Abatzoglou said in an interview. “It has taken fire danger from close to normal a couple of weeks ago to exceptionally dry now. It has taken the summer time drying of fuels into overdrive.”
Abatzoglou said that he is impressed at how quickly Cal Fire crews had controlled several very dangerous fires, particularly the French Fire, which began last week in Mariposa and threatened to destroy the Gold Rush-era town at the gateway to Yosemite National Park.
Had there been multiple large forest fires burning around the state, crews could have been more thinly spread out, he said.
Newsom said climate change is worsening California’s fire risk.
“We have to address the underlying cause in the first place, and that’s heat-trapping gasses,” the governor said. “We’ve got to address the issue of fossil fuels. We have to hold polluters accountable.”
Over the past two weeks, California has endured a record heat wave, with temperatures hitting 124 degrees in Palm Springs and 110 degrees or more in much of the Central Valley, Southern California and parts of the Bay Area.
“Over and over and over and over and over again,” Newsom said. “Record-breaking temperatures. Record-breaking experiences, not just in California but across this country and around the rest of the world. With respect to the troglodytes out there, climate change is real. If you don’t believe in science, you have to believe your own eyes.”
Newsom has made climate change a centerpiece of his governorship, signing legislation to prohibit the sale of new gasoline-burning vehicles by 2035 and spending billions to expand solar, wind, offshore wind and other alternative energy projects.
He praised President Joe Biden, saying that Biden quickly helped California with disaster aid following this year’s wildfires and other calamities, while former President Donald Trump resisted. During his four years as president, Trump denied climate change science and appointed a coal industry lobbyist, Andrew Wheeler, to run the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Newsom recalled Trump’s remarks while touring the devastation from the Camp Fire in 2018, a blaze sparked by a PG&E power line that burned the town of Paradise in Butte County to the ground, killing 85 people, the deadliest wildfire in state history.
“You gotta take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important,” Trump said then. “You look at other countries where they do it differently, and it’s a whole different story. I was with the president of Finland, and he called it a forest nation, and they spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don’t have any problem.”
Wildfire experts noted that many of California’s wildfires have burned in national forests, which are owned and maintained by the federal government, not the state. And that while California has a mostly dry Mediterranean climate, Finland is a Nordic country where temperatures reach -45 F in the winter.
“This is a profound and consequential moment,” Newsom said. “This an all-in moment for all of us. This is serious for this state. No state has more to lose.”
