California fires: Here we go again

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It’s taking national resources to provide enough firefighters to deal with the California fires.

The LA Times has a large feature on the current fires, and it’s much like last year’s horrendous fires:

Firefighters who have converged on California from throughout the nation face an ominous weather forecast as a large swath of the state is expected to be enveloped in severe heat beginning Monday. Forecasters predict erratic winds and the possibility of more fire-igniting lightning strikes.

…In Big Sur, fire commanders are bracing for the heat by asking for more firefighters, especially because some crews have been on the fire lines virtually nonstop for weeks.

The Big Sur fire has been uncrackable, so far. It’s also been diverting resources away from other fires, stretching the services to capacity. It’s destroyed 71,000 acres and is threatening 1800 homes.

A huge effort, (which I can say was more than was used in the Australian fires in Sydney in 1994, which ringed the city), got a major blaze at Goleta partially contained.

According to the LA Times, that effort took: nearly 2,200 firefighters, 19 helicopters and six air tankers, which is massive capacity by any international firefighting standards, on that one fire.

Against that, Governor Schwarznegger commented that 1700 fires had ignited in 14 days.

The score so far:

At the peak of the fire rampage that began June 20, some 1,783 fires burned, many ignited by lightning. So far, more than 510,000 acres from Nevada to the Pacific Ocean have burned, destroying 34 homes and 32 outbuildings, fire officials said.

On the positive side, the lack of fatalities and the preservation of homes is bordering on miraculous, for such huge fires.

From the look of the Big Sur photos that come with the LA Times article, a few things are obvious:

The fire is moving very fast, and very hot.

There are scorched trees, which have clearly received a lot of heat, so hot they look like alligator skins, but there’s green foliage overhead, and around them. That’s quite unusual, it’s like they’ve been hit with a flamethrower, not a forest fire. Some areas have been scorched bare, while others are basically just singed.

Another worrying sign: Pictures of long dry grass, near conifers. That’s not good. Grass fires burn very hot, stay close to the ground, and can move very fast. Apparently there’s plenty of fuel for these fires.

Any Californians take note: In Australia we remove as much fuel from the forest floor as we can, by backburning, firing the fuel in the off season to reduce the fire’s food supply.

If you’ve got any dry fuel around your area, get rid of it.

And good luck.