Experts: Urban sprawl, climate change raise wildfire risk

REDDING, Calif. — A fire that started in a rural community in Northern California underscored a new reality in the state when days later it suddenly roared through neighborhoods on the edge of the city of Redding: Urban areas are increasingly vulnerable to wildfires.

In the last year, neighborhoods in the Northern California wine country city of Santa Rosa and the Southern California beach city of Ventura have been devastated.

Hotter weather attributed to climate change is drying out vegetation, creating more intense fires that spread quickly from rural areas to city subdivisions, climate and fire experts say. But they also blame municipalities that are expanding housing into previously undeveloped areas.

“There are just places where there should not be subdivisions,” said Kurt Henke, a former fire chief in Sacramento who now serves as a consultant to fire organizations. “We’re not talking about a single family who wants to build a house in the woods. I’m talking about subdivisions encroaching into the wild land urban interface that put them in the path of these destructive fires.”

Henke wants more funding from the state legislature to deploy firefighters to areas where conditions are ripe for fast-moving fires, so they can respond quickly if a blaze breaks out.

The fire that affected Redding — a city of about 92,000 people about 250 miles north of San Francisco — started Monday about 10 miles west of the city before sweeping Thursday through the historic Gold Rush town of Shasta and nearby Keswick. It then jumped the Sacramento River and took out subdivisions on the western edge of Redding.

Redding sits at the northern end of the agricultural Central Valley, surrounded by a scenic landscape. It has a downtown with a theater and wine bar and homes spread out in subdivisions.

Two firefighters were killed — one from the Redding Fire Department and the other a bulldozer operator hired for the fire. Hundreds of homes were destroyed and nearly 40,000 people were under evacuation orders.

Like the fires in Santa Rosa and Ventura last year, wind was a major contributor to the blaze’s spread.