California Wildfire Season Starts Three Weeks Early

SACRAMENTO, California, May 10, 2004 (ENS) - San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside units of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) went on fire season status on May 3, about three weeks earlier than usual, but none too soon for two large wildfires that struck the state that same day.

The Cerrito fire started May 3 and blazed across 16,460 acres eight miles southeast of Corona, California. It destroyed 14 homes and forced the evacuation of about 1,000 people before it was contained on Friday. Containment was helped by lower temperatures, higher relative humidity, and decreased wind, but the fire cost $2.3 million to fight to a standstill, and seven firefighters were injured battling the blaze.

A California man has been charged with recklessly starting the Cerrito fire. Richard Brown is accused of dragging a large piece of steel behind his vehicle, creating sparks that started the fire.

The Cachuma fire in the Los Padres National Forest burned 1,127 acres and destroyed one home. The fire, 15 miles northeast of Santa Ynez, required the work of 648 firefighters to control it. Suppression efforts were hampered by steep terrain and poor access, but the fire is now considered completely contained.

This fire started on May 3, and the cause is under investigation. The San Rafael Wilderness is closed to public entry until further notice, and the Nira, Davy Brown, and Cachuma campgrounds and surrounding areas are closed.

The remainder of California's Southern Region is expected to declare fire season by May 17 if the hot and dry weather conditions remain. The Northern Region is also expected to declare fire season by mid-May.

“It’s been hot and dry early this year and the weather forecasters expect it to continue. We are gearing up for what could be a long, difficult fire season,” said Jim Wright, chief of fire protection.

The designation "fire season" for the CDF is considered a state of readiness. Various management decisions are made by the unit chiefs in response to local conditions. They will hire seasonal firefighters, staff all facilities 24 hours per day, increase dispatch levels and often suspend burning permits.

Fire weather experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were deployed to the various California wildfires.

They predict that the surface and upper level weather pattern in the western United States will be slow to change in the next few days, and as a result relatively little change in the fire weather conditions is expected.

Generally temperatures should cool and humidity increase as the moist marine layer makes further inroads across Southern California into early this week, said Phillip Bothwell, senior development meteorologist at the NOAA Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

"The Southwest will continue with above normal temperatures and low humidity," Bothwell predicted. "Winds will increase across the southwest by Monday ahead of an upper level low pressure system moving into the West Coast early next week. Precipitation across the Southwest will be very limited with perhaps a few isolated thunderstorms."

Bothwell said the southeastern United States, which has also seen dry conditions, will continue to see a warm and dry pattern with low afternoon humidity but generally light winds.