You would think that Cal Fire and local fire agencies wouldn’t have to tell people in California to be prepared for wildfires.
Especially when last year was the worst year for wildfires in a very long time, setting records for the amount of acres burned and the thousands of homes lost and the100 lives lost.
Yet here we are in Wildfire Awareness Week in California, and every day this week, Cal Fire is holding news conferences in cities from San Diego to Sacramento getting out the word to people to be prepared.
Getting out the word may fall short of what they’re doing.It’s more like they’re pleading with people to be prepared for wildfires here in 20-19. Because they will come.
Despite all the rain this past winter that will keep a drought away for a while, it won’t keep wildfires away.In fact the new concern is all that new vegetation all over the hillsides, in the canyons and in the fields near homes.When it dries out this summer, it could become a tinderbox for wildfires.
Veterans with emergency services will tell you people like to think that wildfires probably won’t happen where they live and if they do, they probably won’t happen where their home is and even if they do, they’ll have time to prepare.
And they’ll tell you that people who think like that are wrong and that it’s dangerous to think like that.And that’s why the message during this Wildfire Preparedness Week needs to be heard.
FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN BE PREPARED FOR WILDFIRES.
(Photo Credit reporting partner 10News)