Southern California’s top fire officials met behind closed doors in East Los Angeles on Friday to discuss the outlook for the hottest fire season and how to coordinate world-class firefighters to keep communities safe.
At a press conference later, officials stressed that while the Southern California coast is not expected to experience a particularly dangerous fire season, they are doing everything they can to protect Californians. They urged the residents to do the same.
“It’s clear that wildfires are no longer just a firefighter’s problem. It’s a problem for all of us,” said Orange County Fire Authority interim chief TJ McGovern, standing in front of dozens of emergency response vehicles at LA County Fire Department headquarters. “They can only be reduced by all of us working together.”
Coastal Southern California, which had the third wettest season on record over the past 15 years, can expect a normal wildfire season, fire weather forecasters predict. That’s in stark contrast to Northern California, which saw a record-breaking March heat wave melt the mountain’s snowpack early. Fire officials often rely on snowpack to keep vegetation green and moist in the summer.
“The interesting thing about last year was that the southern part of the state was very dry,” Cal Fire Director Joe Tyler said at a wildfire season overview briefing last month. This year, he said, “we’re seeing that crisis really spread in Northern California.”
Coastal Southern California still has to endure a very dry June before reaching normal conditions for July through September — and even “normal” conditions remain dangerous, which is why officials urged Southern Californians on Friday to remain vigilant.
A series of fires in mid-May served as a warning to the region. The Sandy fire in Ventura County destroyed one home and damaged two buildings. The Santa Rosa Island Fire has burned a third of the largest Channel Island.
Officials at a meeting Friday in Southern California urged homeowners to do everything they can to fortify their homes against wildfires — including covering vents with mesh to prevent embers from entering the home and using multi-paned windows that can shatter in extreme heat.
They also asked homeowners to maintain a safe area around their homes by removing dead vegetation from their yards, making sure there is space between trees and shrubs and creating a 5-meter barrier around homes that are not flammable, including plants.
Homeowners should also make sure they sign up for their local evacuation alerts, chiefs added, and shouldn’t hesitate to evacuate when they see or smell smoke — regardless of a legal order.
For their part, Southern California fire departments have been working to reduce dangerous vegetation around communities and remain prepared to respond to fires.
“We’re going to show up. We’re showing up all the time, everywhere … That’s not a question,” said Los Angeles City Fire Chief Jaime Moore. However, without a protected area in individual houses, “it is very difficult for us to be able to fight those fires.”
Los Angeles and Ventura County fire departments have been working to clear burning vegetation surrounding Santa Monica Mountains communities with fire department personnel, goats and set fires. The US Forest Service has been doing similar work in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Crews are working to create a network of clear paths, called fuel breaks, that can slow down the fire and give firefighters access to wildland areas to fight the flames. They also work to get rid of especially invasive weeds.
“As we share our preparations to protect communities and build resilience to wildfires, it’s a call to action,” said Angeles National Forest Fire Chief Robert Garcia. “Now it’s a transition for homeowners and communities to start using some of that work that your facilities do.”
Although this type of global project has grown significantly in the state over the past five years, California is running out of money to complete such projects.
Meanwhile, the US Forest Service has seen a decline in how much work it can complete after the Trump administration drastically reduced the size of the service’s workforce.
It’s not that government funding problems or federal staffing cuts are expected to impact firefighting capabilities.
“It’s as strong as ever,” Tyler said last month of the federal and state government’s ability to respond to the fires.
