CalFire worried about early fire season
By Dave Marquis, News 10
CalFire, the largest firefighting agency in the world, is cautioning that without enough winter rain and snow an intense, dangerous fire season could start as early as April.
“In my 27 years of doing this, I’ve never seen, this far north, fires continue to occur through the winter,” said CalFire Battalion Chief Fred Lopez at his station along Cook Riolo Road in western Placer County.
In Big Sur on the California coast, flames burned homes and property in an unusual late-season fire in mid-December.
The problem in the spring, Lopez said, is that without enough precipitation, heavier fuels that burn longer and hotter, will become dangerously dry.