What We Can Do About California Fires

How bad is the wildfire situation in California? As you’ve been hearing, it’s pretty bad.

Cal Fire officials saying there are three times more acres of brush and forest land that have been burned in the state than the average number of acres burned over the last five years. And there were several massive and deadly fires the last five years including the one that wiped out the town of Paradise killing at least 85 people.

As the state’s Cal Fire director said this week, the good news during the fight against the fires that have been burning, and still are, is that despite some 700 homes being destroyed, there have been no deaths. But the bad news is that many of the worst fires in California’s history have happened in September, October and November when we can get the hot and dry Santa Ana conditions that spark and spread fires. The biggest and deadliest fires in San Diego County happened in late October not that long ago in 2003 and 2007.Those two fires destroyed several thousand homes in our county.

So we are long way from being out of the woods this year, with a lot of the woods still on fire in the northern part of the state. And with warmer temperatures in recent years and droughts that revisit us every few years, the fire season in California has become a year-round season.

We can’t stop all the fires from starting, but we all can do our part to keep our property safer from fires and have a plan to safely evacuate if we ever have to.

HOW TO BE PREPARED

(Photo Getty Images)